I didn't realize Heroku used s3 until today, when my heroku app failed. Makes me wonder why I'm using heroku instead of just aws.

If you're looking for the simplicity of Heroku but want to run on raw AWS check out Convox. It's open source and free to try.

https://convox.com

Disclosure: I'm one of the cofounders

Heroku is a rewrap of AWS for simplicity.

You're paying Heroku to not have to think about deployment or scale, which is also why their marketplace is successful - who wants to think about managing a database, when two clicks and a few environment variables later you can have one. Heroku is great for devs who don't want to think about ops and can afford to throw money at the problem (it gets really expensive really fast).

Skyliner is an option if you're doing real production stuff.

I don't see why this is being downvoted. It's a pretty legitimate concern.

esp since my side project on heroku which uses nothing is down because of this.

The biggest change heroku needs to make is support different regions.