[brrr]

Yes, what you are being offered is perhaps *way* more hardware than you need if you are just graduating from a VPS or shared hosting, and aren't running HUGE sites, and also therefore very expensive.

Benchmark them against even some of the dedicated server big boys and you see that they are perhaps too pricey:
http://www.superbhosting.net/services/all_servers.php

or

http://www.theplanet.com/dedicated%2Dservers/

And yes installing a control panel (there are lots, inc some good free ones) and litespeed is pretty easy.

Setting a server up right (eg to be secure etc) takes more work and learning, of course, but certainly is doable for non rocket scientists.