I am the same way, I advocate a lot for replacing legacy LBs (F5? Citrix? blech) and software not really suited for LB functions, a la Apache, with HAProxy. It's working out well so far.
Combine that with a nice network and a tasty [EI]GP and be in pure web-serving bliss (of which I've only worked on two networks with that kind of design forethought, which is a shame).
Based on the E/IGP comment, I'd guess they mean a routed layer 3 network that can speak routing protocols down to the host level. As opposed to the big ol flat networks that get pushed around frequently
Combine that with a nice network and a tasty [EI]GP and be in pure web-serving bliss (of which I've only worked on two networks with that kind of design forethought, which is a shame).