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To clarify the virtual license issue, it does not really work the way the OP stated it.

IF
You're a volume licensing agreement customer
AND
you buy Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise
THEN
You can run four VMs of that OS on one license.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/virtualization.aspx

If you're a VPA customer running Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter: You can run any number of software instances in physical and virtual operating system environments on a server.

BUT CALS are sold separately with Datacenter.

So Datacenter effectively costs more, since it would appear that you would need to buy CALs for each virtual instance of 2008, since it does not come with any.

So in terms of the statement "Microsoft allows you to deploy multiple virtual machines running Windows Server 2008 R2 for the cost of a single server license" that's not 100% accurate,

It's like saying, this car I'm selling has four wheel drive, if you buy the four-wheel-drive option.