Secondly, I'd like to know how many of the apps that Heroku hosts are actually production apps.
Agreed. Because of Heroku's unreasonable pricing, I see it as a feasible service only for staging and development. Without deep pockets, I would never want to host a potentially popular app on Heroku since I could never afford to scale it there. And because I don't want to have to go to the trouble of reengineering something after it's been developed to move it elsewhere, I would rather build it elsewhere from the start.
I'm not sure what you base your statements about Europeans on. From my experience in both cultures, there is very little difference in this respect, except for the provision of greater societal safety nets in Europe.
Agreed. Because of Heroku's unreasonable pricing, I see it as a feasible service only for staging and development. Without deep pockets, I would never want to host a potentially popular app on Heroku since I could never afford to scale it there. And because I don't want to have to go to the trouble of reengineering something after it's been developed to move it elsewhere, I would rather build it elsewhere from the start.