Postgres restore from WAL-E backup never finishes
standby_mode = on


Tharrr's yer problem. You've configured it as a continuous (warm or hot) standby.

standby_mode in the manual:


  standby_mode (boolean)
  
  Specifies whether to start the PostgreSQL server as a standby. If this parameter is on, the server will not stop recovery when the end of archived WAL is reached, but will keep trying to continue recovery by fetching new WAL segments using restore_command and/or by connecting to the primary server as specified by the primary_conninfo setting.