I would echo your comments about getting what you pay for….and the ability to contact tech support and elicit a quick response is far more important than uptime guarantees. I used a medium-sized hosting company for all client sites for several years but it was a real problem for me when this company started to have problems with the shared server where my sites were. My clients would call me, I would call the hosting company…. etc etc. Now, I am lucky to work with a small hosting company run by a friend of mine. It’s more expensive in purely money terms but a lot less expensive in business terms! And we are still friends! In my case, smaller company and personal service has proved to be much better.