It's interesting how people's interpretation of keeping it simple varies from organisation to organisation. I've worked in places where a developers concept of keeping it simple meant the simplest code to write (hard coding, code that is written for a specific server, or to do a particular thing in a particular circumstance). This for me is a scenario that I do everything I can to change.

For me the notion of keeping it simple means simple to manage. To achieve this often requires the most difficult code and considerably more effort.

I'd be inclined to agree with you in your point about it not being necessary to do the same work on every server just for the sake of it, however what I would want is exactly the same logic applied on all my servers. In a corporation where developers and operational staff / servers are kept in isolation, it is essential that even if the data is different, the logic stays the same. That way your developers know what to expect when its release time.