* the login to aws.
* Then creating S3 keys with the right security settings.
* Then tweaking the settings to serve pages
* Then setting up SSL with letsencrypt (I have not looked it up, but I'm pretty sure it is possible)
* Then configuring CORS if you need it (again, possible with S3)
In the end it just came down to workflow. I never really enjoyed working with AWS on command-line or automation. I much prefer the push-to-deploy workflow pioneered by Heroku and adapted/cloned with Dokku.
Just a note on your point about S3 and Letsencrypt: AWS has their own tool for free provisioning of TLS certificates, which is all integrated in a very nice way if you put your S3 bucket behind Cloudfront (which is a good idea). Search the console for the AWS Certificate Manager.
