I tried to get a node up and running once upon a time. It was a difficult journey I gave up on as my personal funds wouldn't support it on an ongoing matter. I also wanted to own the physical hardware, not rent it. :)
We shall see what the next few days bring.
I am pretty sure some of the witnesses will not need their equipment anymore. Could strike a bargain
Most of that hardware is in European data centres, not owned by them, but leased.
A lot of it is Intel gear as well, that basically needs a nuclear powerplant to run. :P
I'd rather have AMD EPYC hardware at this point :P
I've got no room in the house to put it, let alone the knowledge of how to get a witness node up and running.
Done that passed that long time ago... then tried EOS... then gave up... =) I have better and bigger machines where I work that I can't use for this.. and not having codes that can use the full potential of hardware even if the target is to sustain decentralization, its not a good path in my view.
Performance from some players might be better, but that does not mean they have the same profits or play in the game. For the later, you have real'estate. Not blockchain.
It would be nice if setting up a node was as easy as it was to mine dogecoin back in the day. :)