i never got into the nodes a lot but api nodes were always the biggest "problem" for hive. ther are over 100+ witness nodes but not a lot public api nodes.
i think there are some private nodes also. i am almost sure that splinterlands runs one.

and i have 0 technical knowledge but if i understood correctly there is work on code for api nodes that will have an option to only pool data that they need to. so every app will be able to run a node that is less resource demanding.

also as i never did anything with servers, what is the price for that? is 64GB ram and 1TB storage a lot? i will show my ignorance :D but few sticks of Ram and my home PC is there, and my home PC is nothing really special.