Amount of nodes doesn't matter that much in DPoS for security, but it matters a lot for decentralization (i.e. having ability to run your very own instance of fully featured backend+frontend instance on a reasonably priced hardware would be a great win).
When will I be able to run a node on my eight year old, six gig box?
While that might be possible at some point, I don't think that's there's much sense at aiming at that.
I'd rather aim for running current state of blockchain on a current consumer grade hardware.