Many companies claim to be working on things like marketplaces etc, but unless you can sell (buying is always trivial) and further unless you can sell to not just AWS but to a pool of other users, it ain't no marketplace.
Further parallels with options are: 1) your upfront payment is option premium; 2) your RI has time value which is always declining as time passes; 3) RI gives you a right, not obligation, to do something; 4) RIs have many series, each expiring at the same time, just like exchange-traded options that expire at predetermined times.
All in all, this is huge. Or even bigger than huge. It can enable certain things that were not possible before, and personally I am very excited about opportunities it will present and how it will re-shape public IaaS.