While AWS can be a good solution depending on the needs and the costs/earnings ratio (for example there are companies netting tens of millions every year that h

While AWS can be a good solution depending on the needs and the costs/earnings ratio (for example there are companies netting tens of millions every year that have relatively limited computational requirements: if they spend 200k/year on EC2 is not the end of the world), I bet that part of its popularity is due to the following interesting feedback: at the end of the day, the sysops/devs picking EC2 are not paying for the bill. At the same time they are not going to be fired if the service is down, as "eveybody is down right now". This creates an environment where EC2 is not just a popular pick, but also praised by most, even when actually for the specific company needs other solutions could be way more cost effective or even provide a way better environment.