If I understand correctly, sites using AWS, and reddit.com for sure, are geared towards automatically starting and stopping EC2 instances as needed. If that is the case, why can't they just move everything to a different region, which hasn't been affected by this disaster?
"That's good for separating the mediocre from the morons."
That's a lot, if you ask me - the morons usually make up the vast majority of candidates, so by filtering them out effortlessly at an early stage, you get to spend your time more effectively - identifying the great ones among those who at least hold a promise.