The problem is the hardware requirements for a full node on Steem are so ridiculous that you have to consider DIY, especially since there is no data loss in a complete failure scenario.
Enterprise quality hardware for a full node would be $30-40K. A Dell server that meets requirements today is around $20k and that's without any redundancy or hardware RAID. The fact the hardware would be outgrown in 6 months makes it even worse.
There is a good chance all these servers we are setting up for full nodes with 512GB of ram won't be sufficient in 6 months. AppBase promises to help in this regards, as does account history changing to 30 days instead of since block 0 on full nodes, but then again Steem Mobile Wallet was coming out in November.
Spending $20k-$30k+ on hardware that may last 6 months isn't a very smart move, especially when there is no financial recovery by running a full node, only a witness node and those positions with the funding to do such a thing are pretty much locked in stone.
Just have in mind, that for the price of two NVE, you can get a refurbished enterprise grade server with controller and even 240GB ECC ram on ebay. (The cost of the new one would be 20-30k).
But you are right on many points. Unless there are other motives, most likely investing in enterprise grade infrastructure is not a wise choice and it's likely not to generate ROI.