Hari Ravichandran is the Michael Milken of hosting. He purchases decent brands and then runs them into the ground with second rate support. EIG make money, due to cost cutting (both service and support) and affiliate promotion.

It's one of the great shames of the WordPress world that Automattic took money from these guys and are prostituting the recommended hosts page. Bluehost and EIG are not controversial, they're just bad/evil.

Surprised to see you whitewashing EIG, Jeff. Ah, except your experience of Bluehost does not mirror that of normal clients. WPtavern.com is on the Bluehost promotional VIP list. I think at one point it was established VIP Bluehost sites weren't even at the same datacentre as the commercially sold allotments.