It would be nice to see Hive-Engine and Hive merge into one, but I don't think that will be happening any time soon.
I'm not sure how much help I can be, but I'll definitely run a node once there's purpose in running one, hopefully there will be some kind of reward for running a node as well.
Is it possible to deploy your own code? "No-code smart contracts" is a little bit of an oxymoron as the entire point of smart contracts is having a general purpose system to develop on top of. Sure, having templates is great, but for us more advanced users it's best to have both the access to templates and the ability to deploy our own code.
Some of my ideas for projects require smart contracts, and while I'd prefer them to be on-chain, a robust side chain should be able to fulfill the needs as well.