Overuse of that comic is a pet-peeve of mine. That comic is about standards, which the entire point is for everyone to agree on. That doesn't apply to all products in general! The point of a database isn't for everyone to use the same product. It's to store data. It's not ironic in any way that there are multiple competing database products! It's only standards that have any irony in that fact!
Except i still don't know how i could build my own S3 or simpledb equivalent, even provided i have unlimited servers at my disposal. By looking at this project, it seems like they're trying to tacle the big problem, and that's a good thing.