At what point will it cost the same to maintain a node and pay the fees of a transaction?
Would not that be a BIG irony?
Node and fee ... seriously, you ask ?
Bitcoin is a network, and fee is the mecanism to be allow to emit a transaction.
If you don't follow the rules (or choose deliberatly a low fee) : Deal with it.
A full node can process 20 connexions with 10 tx per second (per each connexion) without arming the bandwidth and the power of the node (well, if it's a pi ...
).
Most of the (new ?) users, here, don't understand the "network" in the "
B" of the Bitcoin.
bitcoin (with a "b") is money.
But a good part of this forum understand and valuate the
Bitcoin, first (and get rich with bitcoins after ... a couple of years).