Well if you don't want to be connected to the Ethereum blockchain then you probably should just use a webserver. The advantage of using a blockchain like Ethereum is that it is very secure and very reliable compared to a webserver - also it is perhaps less work maintaining a DAO than a webserver.

So if you want to issue tokens for your hackspace, it would be nice if they existed on a public blockchain so that users could trade then and see their balance at any time - no need to worry about server uptime or vulnerabilities.

A DAO is a smart contract on the blockchain. Note that Microsoft and Redhat make it possible to run a private ethereum chain in the cloud if you really wanted to. But as the other commenter pointed out I don't see the point in that for your use case.