I like to think I'm pretty smart. I've had a very hard time running my own LN node. Starting with raspibolt.org my node froze up without me noticing and all my channels were force closed.
Tried again with a small lenovo thinkstation, my ssd Mount didn't persist after restarts, didn't notice for almost a year, again channels are force closed.
I can hear the "skill issue" in the distance. But the truth is running a LN node is hard. Even without the sys admin problems, I never figured out who I should open channels to, how much in those channels to be a good peer on the network. Tbh, I just don't have the time or interest in running a routing node. I much prefer the LSP model.
I use this to find a channel to open with https://bolt.observer/explorer/
The only differences between you and I, is that you gave up where I didn't.
Sadly running a lightning routing node is not the same as an LSP, and more routing nodes doesn’t solve the LSP problem.
You are right. If I want centralization within the lightning network, then I want an LSP.