@_ck_ -

Even automattic uses litespeed to this very day.

I'm pretty sure that they switched to nginx in early 2008.

There is a free version ...
No, there is a 15-day free trial. Then you get mugged.

... and it can weather a ddos when apache would be long dead.
Modern versions of Apache are fine if properly configured.

HOWEVER, the whole discussion is pretty ridiculous, it only promotes the fantasy that you can have any control at all when you share a server with tens of thousands of people you don't know.