Of course the free space is increasing more than a few years ago, even more than last year. Your drives that you had laying around and put to work for Storj were like 3-4 TB.
Now they filed up and you bought biggest ones you can afford… 20-24TB.
You add the free space all at once.
But the occupied space is increasing slowly like it always did.
With all the testing and promises, many buyed and added new big drives.
So… it’s not so abnormal to see a lot of free space from time to time.
Regarding the ROI and getting your kids through college, I don’t know what you guys are lamenting about.
Many of us are planning to get Lambos with Storj eanings, so… see here:
https://forum.storj.io/t/what-lambo-will-you-get-with-nodes-earnings/23625?u=snorkel
I even bought the air freshner fragrant tree.