The fact is that running a RPC is still much higher a cost than running a Witness node.

When we look at the distribution of printed HIVE it is clear that part of it is dedicated to the needs of the chains infrastructure.

So the precedent to the fundamental roles of the distribution of printed HIVE is there.

There is absolutely nothing preventing a Witness from running a RPC node. That option is open to anyone.

Why anyone would run one, is up to the individuals own reasoning. As you stated, it could be a part of their witness campaign, in the hope of getting "more witness votes".

We have seen in the past 3+ years that RPC nodes are constantly up and down and their up time could be a "measuring stick" for any such distribution of HIVE (as suggested above). Will not go further into the metrics of something that is not yet on the drawing board.

As for the figures, I pulled them up from old files I had. If they are not spot on to the cent, my bad, they are there to give a rough figure so that anyone who is not familiar with the generalities of how printed HIVE is distributed and for what.

Once again, the starting point for the above topic is "not leaving things to chance" and "covering all bases".

Once upon a time, in a distant centralized poophole that got pimped and sold out, there was a very shallow and extremely selfish mentality among so many people.

We now see that mentality being cut off slowly and the vision is not all about the "here and now" but rather the long term of things and it should include (but not be limited to) the long term requirements of our infrastructure requirements. Ensuring what is/shall be required for the days when there are millions of transactions per second.

& thanks for putting in the current figures, guess the inflation has somewhat affected some of the figures I listed. I must be getting "old" :)