to answer my own question: yes, you should look somewhere else
aws ec2 describe-images --region us-east-1 --filters "Name=name,Values=balenaOS*"
{
"Images": [
{
"Architecture": "x86_64",
"CreationDate": "2022-12-20T15:23:44.000Z",
"ImageId": "ami-0799401323b99ed4c",
"ImageLocation": "491725000532/balenaOS-2.108.3-rev1-generic-amd64",
"ImageType": "machine",
"Public": true,
"OwnerId": "491725000532",
"PlatformDetails": "Linux/UNIX",
"UsageOperation": "RunInstances",
"State": "available",
"BlockDeviceMappings": [
{
"DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
"Ebs": {
"DeleteOnTermination": true,
"SnapshotId": "snap-052741b691251d183",
"VolumeSize": 8,
"VolumeType": "gp2",
....