you hit the nail on the head (oppositely, I was surprised to see them deploy out HA Proxy by default). The lack of VPC makes this far less appealing. I've been working on a scaling capable VPC configuration with quite a few moving parts and got so giddy with excitement over the potential of OpsWorks, then I tested it out and realized it's nowhere near ready for prime time and is missing some major players.
Still...Props to them and am excited to see it mature.