Usually I agree with the cynical stuff you say, but in this case the hype is warranted. No, it's not going to change things forever, but it's an incredible leap for a company that very few people would have seen this coming from, and the fact that a company is giving themselves up to the cloud is pretty damn impressive.
I think it will be instructive, in much the same fashion as I think anybody trying to make money on the Internet should be willing to give the Pets.com marketing plan a few minutes of their time. I'm sure when some marketers saw the $1.2 million sock puppet Superbowl ad they were convinced a new era had dawned, a cult hero had been born, and they were about to sell a lot of dog food.
Two out of three ain't bad.