Andrew Youderian's posts are always perceptive. As a dude who runs all his own blogs, I have to admit he has me thinking twice about the whole self-hosting thang. Good for sites I know will achieve limited traffic (like my HOA), but WPEngine may be worth considering for bigger commercial sites. I do loves my own plugins, though.
I'd love to hear from others who have had items hit the frontpage for an extended period regarding traffic stats and exposure. This post got as high as #14 and was on the front page for 4 to 5 hours. Overall, it received 4,000+ visits which is just crazy.
Great job WPEngine for keeping everything running smoothly!