AWS comes with a ton of added functionality that may not be relevant to you, especially if you've no need to scale or deploy machines in seconds. That comes at a cost.
It's a shallow orange vs. apples comparison, but look at the price of colocating 1/3 rack at Hetzner (119EUR). If you already own the hardware, have no need to use any advanced AWS feature, have the skills to manage it, etc.. sometimes it make sense.
For personal and/or SMB needs, it usually not worth the trouble (specially regarding skills to maintain it).
So you're right, it's becoming more and more a niche.
It's a shallow orange vs. apples comparison, but look at the price of colocating 1/3 rack at Hetzner (119EUR). If you already own the hardware, have no need to use any advanced AWS feature, have the skills to manage it, etc.. sometimes it make sense.
For personal and/or SMB needs, it usually not worth the trouble (specially regarding skills to maintain it).
So you're right, it's becoming more and more a niche.