Ain't a 'server' boss. They're running a segment of code. When someone hits your PHP page on an oversubscribed DreamHost box with 4000 other sites contending for resources, it's pretty much the same thing. Here we're getting some dedicated CPU/Mem, but it ain't a 'server.' Where's the dedicated disk and ability to install/run whatever I want? Nope, just a lil segment of JS running on a shared resource and billed in 100ms increments.
Sorry, where were you getting servers in 1999 that existed for fractions of a second?