Thank you for explaining the differences between the nodes.
Noob question:
I'd like to support the steemit network (because I think it is a good idea), but

• is my contribution required? Hard to find network stats.
• maybe a upgrade to 64 Gb Ram is necessary instead of SSD
• bandwidth requirement? my actual limit is 100Mbit/s
• expenses vs earnings? (vs ZEC/Monero mining)