Yes, there are many S3-compatible backup solutions like the same restic (if you configure the underlaying rclone to use S3 integration instead of native), HashBackup, Comet, HyperBackup, and so on.
And you are correct, that you always can run a Self-hosted S3-compatible Gateway (Gateway-ST) to still have a native integration while using S3 protocol.
You may also configure to use a Storj deposit address from your Storj DCS account as a wallet address in the storagenode’s configuration (but disable zkSync, since the deposit address doesn’t support zkSync yet). In this case there is almost no change in a value.
And Storj needs to find a way to make them integrate uplink natively rather than S3. They most likely do S3 anyway not for Storj but for Amazon, Backblaze and Wasabi, so they are likely lazy. But if gateway usage would come at a higher price it would put some pressure on developers when their users have to pay higher prices than they would have to.
So maybe developer should receive higher revenue share when they do native integration and S3 gateway usage should come at higher prices than native usage.
You may use S3 Browser right now, either with a Storj-hosted S3-compatible Gateway (Gateway-MT) or with a Self-hosted S3-compatible Gateway.
If you need to mount a bucket as a folder or disk you may also use:
I personally second that.
Since there is no way to configure two wallet addresses on the node and I don’t think it is possible to withdraw tokens from the DCS account, this would only work if what I use on DCS costs about the same as what I get for running the node. If my node gets $50/month and I need to pay, say, $5/month, then it does not work that well, unless I change the wallet address on my node every few months.
And if they pay you double again or you don’t get paid for whatever reason then your problems start.
Directing your payouts directly to a wallet address that you cannot control and where you cannot withdraw sounds like a bad idea.
I have to agree, however many SNO doing so
but with exchange’s deposit address.
And I would not do so for the Storj DCS deposit address, but you can do so. I mention just a possibility and how to avoid problems if you would use zkSync.
Please do not consider it as a suggestion 
it doesn’t matter because Storj Labs can use the token sale reserves with no restrictions.
That’s why the company doesn’t matter the token price (until the token reserves are gone).
This is doesn’t matter for the reasons, described above.
When you pay for the service, tokens are converted into USD value on sent date and added with 10% to your balance, when you receive a payout as a SNO, you received amount of tokens converted from a USD value on sent date.
Reserves just allows to subsidize SNO, but the main reason doesn’t change: all calculations are made in USD, not STORJ tokens - that’s why the price of the token doesn’t matter.
You may consider the STORJ token as a gift card, you can use its value to pay for the service and can receive it as a payout for your service.
You can add a credit card as backup payment method. Then if the STORJ balance from node operator payouts is insufficient to cover your usage charges on Storj DCS, the difference will be charged to the credit card. Alternately, you can still make additional STORJ deposits to the same wallet address generated by the Storj DCS billing service to top off your balance if you prefer to only pay with STORJ tokens.
And what if it’s the opposite and I get more as a node operator than I would have to pay as a customer?
Can we either stay on topic, close the thread or at least announce it as no longer valid for the discussion on payment changes?
I am following it in case there is something new added, either from the team or community, but all I read is tangents of tangents. Waste of time to go through all of it in case there is something relevant in-between.
You already answered that question yourself. Only switch to Storj DCS wallet address temporarily when you want to top it off and otherwise usd your regular wallet address for payouts.
there is more posibilitie, you can setup binance to recive payment, and setup storj to pay with binance card. but you will need to convert your storj to usdt, but may be also you can setup there storj as payment currency and it will convert automaticly when it pay
It appears free tier will now be 25Gb.
only for new users, there is announcement also there.
Storj Free Tier Update for New Accounts: 25 GB Storage - Announcements - Storj Community Forum (official)
Since the payouts are being reduced, will the pricing also be reduced for end users? With new players like Cloudflare R2 which offers free egress, I’m guessing there should be some consideration on this matter to make Storj more competitive and viable.
Causing Storj to lose even more money hardly seems like a strategy to make it viable.
What decidion was made? Any official info?
They said it will be an update for the proposal untill the end of the month. Last month 
. Let’s not rush them. I enjoy the payouts right now.