I think it's mostly simplicity; with SLS I can have an endpoint for a random function in minutes, so when I want to build e.g. "return AI generated image" I reach for SLS. Then as that project grows, I stay on SLS because it's just there.
But if I could get that set up with SST in similar time, I would reach for that instead. I think SST is very feature-ful and I often find myself putting good thought into what I am architecting when I'm using it; but it isn't very often that I want to put good thought into what I am architecting when I am just starting a project.
To give an example I am using SLS in most of my contracted work; I am using SST for a project that builds other projects. If you solve the "why are they reaching for SLS at all" problem I think SST would be the very easy choice in every scenario, if for nothing other than the sheer number of providers that are supported instead of just AWS.
I'm sure some of this is a compromise that's tough to design around, so maybe the solution here is a service built on top of SST. I don't necessarily mean Vercel (am familiar with your thoughts on that company), but maybe an easy graphical tool or even a form that spits out my sst.config.ts for me :)
But if I could get that set up with SST in similar time, I would reach for that instead. I think SST is very feature-ful and I often find myself putting good thought into what I am architecting when I'm using it; but it isn't very often that I want to put good thought into what I am architecting when I am just starting a project.
To give an example I am using SLS in most of my contracted work; I am using SST for a project that builds other projects. If you solve the "why are they reaching for SLS at all" problem I think SST would be the very easy choice in every scenario, if for nothing other than the sheer number of providers that are supported instead of just AWS.
I'm sure some of this is a compromise that's tough to design around, so maybe the solution here is a service built on top of SST. I don't necessarily mean Vercel (am familiar with your thoughts on that company), but maybe an easy graphical tool or even a form that spits out my sst.config.ts for me :)