Honestly, if you are thinking about running a witness, I would just go buy a BeeLink mini PC and save yourself the hassle. Unless you are looking for a challenge. You can get a nice Ryzen 7 with 32GB of RAM for around $300 these days in a super small form factor that uses hardly any electricity. I've been moving to these devices quite a bit, and I know some folks run their whole home lab off of them. I'd like to have my own witness node one day when I have more time to dedicate to it.
I do get it that it's worth investing the extra money to get good performance. A Pi 5 plus the extras is over £100 and will involve some compromise. You should be able to handle a witness node with your experience. I've no idea if I would actually earn from it. I may look into it next year.
No, I don't think I would earn much of anything from it. I just like the idea of supporting the blockchain. I don't think I have the connections, or the developer skills to ever make it into the top levels of witnesses.
I expect you could get a fair few votes as you have good connections. Just ask around The Pub ;)
Yeah, I would have thought so, but my SPS Node is sitting right around the 100 spot down from closer to the 70s before. I have a feeling not as many people care about that, but who knows.