[story of recovering a server] It would be nice if this were more automated.
If I were starting out, I'd be inclined to use RAID, even with replicated servers. Disks are one of the most frequent failures, and more annoying than many (swapping in a new power supply is easier than restoring from backups). I see RAID as cheap insurance against having to do lots of sysadmin work when it isn't convenient.
