Hi Gregory,
Not putting any feet to the fire, just logging issues as I find them, with workarounds and updates posted, for the benefit of all.
Nevertheless, considering the issues an active statistics server is acknowledged to inflict upon an AWS instance as far back as last summer, unfortunate it was not disabled in latest available version. However this is coming, which is great.
http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana/blog/2014/02/03/sap-hana-developer-edition-v1770
YIkes, you tried my method of stopping the statistics server? What method? 
I was hoping an approved method would be confirmed as my earlier post hinted at uncertainty.
I now only use M2.4XLARGE, and occasional statiistics server issues aside, which I will disable permanantly when I'm sure how, all is super, loving all the learning SPS07 has to offer.