your assessment would've been correct 3 or 4 years ago but there's just no need to scaffold ec2, mysql db inside a vpc. You can upload your environment via docker and start serving serverless. You can then use serverless db that is 90% cheaper and far less hassle than scaling up or down ec2 instances/rds, configuring vpc, setting up nat gateways etc

my view is that if you are not on serverless, you are wasting resources that could otherwise been dedicated to building out domain knowledge

our team focuses on optimizing each function and less on devops/scaling. the plumbing work is gone and all we do is now translate business requirements. security concerns are also largely removed.

its a great time to be on serverless, it had to overcome lot of doubt but it is here to stay. no need to pay $5 / month either for your weekend projects. even if your project hits front page, it will still work, the billing is not even that bad for what you are getting.