> People don’t want to run their own servers, and never will
It's worth distinguishing "running" a server from "having" a server. I lost interest in "running" my own services a couple decades ago - too much work, and I don't keep up on security patches, so it felt like a huge liability too. I am quite happy to "have" a server of my own though that requires minimal babysitting.
We already have this today in some forms: I have a network attached printer that once configured to get online, removes the need for me to run my own print server. Similarly I have NAS devices that remove the need for me to run my own file server. You could argue that the little box that my HomeKit devices talks to is also a little server for coordinating all of my little HomeKit devices. Each of these are pretty popular, even amongst the general population. That popularity tells me that people are quite happy to "have" purpose-built servers, but only if they don't need to "run" them.
It's worth distinguishing "running" a server from "having" a server. I lost interest in "running" my own services a couple decades ago - too much work, and I don't keep up on security patches, so it felt like a huge liability too. I am quite happy to "have" a server of my own though that requires minimal babysitting.
We already have this today in some forms: I have a network attached printer that once configured to get online, removes the need for me to run my own print server. Similarly I have NAS devices that remove the need for me to run my own file server. You could argue that the little box that my HomeKit devices talks to is also a little server for coordinating all of my little HomeKit devices. Each of these are pretty popular, even amongst the general population. That popularity tells me that people are quite happy to "have" purpose-built servers, but only if they don't need to "run" them.