Not a big deal if you are from the US but if you are from Australia for example then you wouldn't be able to take advantage of a Sydney availability zone if it become available (as it is rumored).
Yes, they are tied to a availability zone. Another thing I found confusing them is the choice of platform e.g. there is Linux and Linux VPC, after some searching I figured I should just choose Linux.
Not a big deal if you are from the US but if you are from Australia for example then you wouldn't be able to take advantage of a Sydney availability zone if it become available (as it is rumored).