As someone who is using Datomic Pro in production for many years now I must agree with you. One time I began a project with Datomic Cloud and it was a disaster similar to what you described. I learned a lot about AWS, but after about half a year we switched to Datomic Pro.
There were some cool ideas in Datomic Cloud, like IONs and its integrated deployment CLI. But the dev workflow with Datomic Pro in the REPL, potentially connected to your live or staging database is much more interactive and fun than waiting for CodeDeploy.
I guess there is a reason Datomic Pro is the featured product on datomic.com again. It appears that Cognitect took a big bet with Datomic Cloud and it didn't take off. Soon after the NuBank acquisition happened. That being said, Datomic Cloud was not a bad idea, it just turned out that Datomic Pro/onPrem is much easier to use. Also of all their APIs, the "Peer API" of Pro is just the best IME, especially with `d/entity` vs. "pull" etc.
There were some cool ideas in Datomic Cloud, like IONs and its integrated deployment CLI. But the dev workflow with Datomic Pro in the REPL, potentially connected to your live or staging database is much more interactive and fun than waiting for CodeDeploy. I guess there is a reason Datomic Pro is the featured product on datomic.com again. It appears that Cognitect took a big bet with Datomic Cloud and it didn't take off. Soon after the NuBank acquisition happened. That being said, Datomic Cloud was not a bad idea, it just turned out that Datomic Pro/onPrem is much easier to use. Also of all their APIs, the "Peer API" of Pro is just the best IME, especially with `d/entity` vs. "pull" etc.