Thanks for your insights. I definitely would want my own hardware. Redundancy seems particularly critical. I'm sort of thinking along the lines of investing some money and running the node with complete disregard for routing fees at the outset. The emphasis would be on routing volume. If we're all correct, bitcoin's dollar value will go up in the years to come, and each channel would be substantially more valuable as time goes by.

The goal would be altruistic to start- benefiting the network and fighting centralization.

As time goes by, the node may become profitable. I know this isn't a unique idea. I believe a few nodes have taken this approach already.