Ask HN: Who remembers AWS Spot's auction era before the 2017 pricing change?

Who remembers AWS's auction-based Spot instance market?

I'm researching the history of Spot instances and would love to hear from anyone who actually used AWS Spot during the auction era (before the 2017 pricing changes).

I've been reading research papers claiming AWS was manipulating prices with hidden reserve algorithms even though it marketed itself as an open auction.

Would love to hear if that matches real user experiences