For what it's worth, did a ton of hosting research to begin 2014 and decided on WPEngine to host our high-traffic WP client websites. Support has been stellar (for a new customer I've sent them a ton of requests) and the speed/uptime is exactly as advertised. Can't say I experience WPE prior to 2014 but I can't imagine how it could have been much better.

I read *every* horror story about WPE and it's competitors and am happy to have made the switch to WPE