I can only partially agree with you here. You can’t run storj without hardware, so hardware you run it on is an investment.
Sure, many SNOs run storj on hardware that’s already up and running, on drives they already have. But not considering every aspect of it is just wrong. Otherwise you can’t say you profit from your hardware, you could be exchanging its useful life for storj payments and there is no guarantee that the exchange is profitable for you.
Another point one needs to consider is whether to maintain storj when hard drives or other hardware needs to be replaced. If profits gained on earlier “free” hardware are not significant enough, one may decide that storj is not worth it.
So profitability concerns are valid.
Please. This is $13.2/TB*month.