We’ve migrated a lot of people from Dreamhost after their site gets mildly popular, and they notice it’s either down or slow. But, we don’t offer hosting plans that are as cheap as them as well.
I would recommend you check out zippykid.com (our site), page.ly, or wpengine.com if you’re interested WordPress hosting that doesn’t suck.
I’d be willing to give you a coupon if I could get some of your feedback.