Ok, well not having openssh-server installed is a bit unexpected for me. However, my main issue is with cloud-init being pre-installed. If that's in place, I can easily add openssh-server and you can easily remove it so it's not as important which is decided. Also, I'd prefer to have root disabled from the beginning and log in with an admin user account using an SSH key, which I can easily do with cloud-init.
I think cloud-init is more or less a standard for a basic Linux server image these days. Note that many of cloud-init's tasks are only run on the first boot. So installing cloud-init later does not do any good. Instead I have to configure everything by hand or by script when I already have a cloud-init config I could have used. Thanks, Jeremy Bicha
