So..... is it time to revisit replacing cloud-init with something else?
Maybe the CoreOS implementation?
They've moved much earlier into the startup process (operating in initramfs) which would be a major step for Atomic.
If Semaphore (the OSS Ansible Tower) were complete, having cloud-init do a callback would have similar effects as the agent based management systems. But I agree with Colin that overall interface doesn't seem to get a lot of attention.
Cheers,
Matt