This one really surprised me: "Finally, there's not much for deployment. I run my apps in GNU screen and that's about it." Seriously? Is he that lucky, serves that little traffic, or does he run with redundant power, network, server and 24/7 monitoring in an inaccessible bunker? I haven't been able to run even my toy web apps without something like monit - due to both things under my control and outside of it.
I regarded this as cowboy, but as it worked for me I haven't needed to re-visit it.