I wasn't even thinking about cloud products for personal use, just services like AWS and Azure. You're right that those are a different beast, not everyone wants to learn how to DIY and they're in an environment hostile to doing that anyway. It's disappointing in that it's backsliding on the promise of personal computers, making users more dependent rather than less, but using them is a reasonable choice for a lot of people. Vendor certs like MSwhatevers are anticredentials though. Waving them around is a good sign you don't really know what you're doing.
I think the same holds for services: if you're a start-up, if you're small, if your IT department is a part-time contractor you mostly get ahold of through Skype, AWS or Azure look a lot like iCloud and Dropbox while the idea of a DL380 sitting in the corner brings up mental images like this: No disagreement about the anti-credentials. They usually sit above an ITT Tech or University of Phoenix on the resume. Nonetheless, those were the guys we hired, back when I was a part of that world.
"Bad server farm" is a fun google image search. I was ragged edge of inviting a Proliant into my life twice. Calmer heads prevailed. Of course, had I gone that way I wouldn't have had to install knoppix on a zip drive to rebuild a ZFS array in man-down formation...