Yes! And that's why I'm glad VRCDN exists, it's an excellent service. The support is fantastic so you really get more than just a CDN, you don't have to deal with any headaches. Definitely not for everyone to set up their own networks.

Simpler times. I'm optimistic that community fracturing is healthy in the long run though, and maybe someday we will end up back where we started.

Single points of failure are stressful on big nights like NYE every year. Lack of competition increases the likeliness of price hikes as more bandwidth and support is required. The servers can be tailored to each event's specific needs.