AWS announces virtual private servers starting at $5 a month
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
"...removing a huge barrier to entry for less technical users"
"Certainly folks who have a technical background, and have more specific requirements will want more control over their choices"
This isn't necessarily true. I might be generalizing, but I don't think that most people who can fire up and administer a Linux VM will have much trouble creating an EC2 instance.
The thing is...unless I have to do that, I don't want to. Spinning up EC2, Azure, and GCE VMs isn't difficult, but I still much prefer the workflow of creating a VM using Linode or Digital Ocean.
There was a point in my career where I relished more complexity. I'm at the point now where I almost always prefer a simpler solution provided it is sufficient to accomplish the task at hand.