well... with a p2p network uptime is not really important.
its the amount of connectible nodes that count.
though 6k is not much. for that reason i started a node.. (well only one... btw why does mp not fire up a few? he has way more resources than me)
Well, a node isn't "connectible" if it isn't turned on and caught up.
As to making more nodes,
we're working on it.
How does the number of active nodes compare with the number of active miners? I'm guess there are way more miners than there are people running full nodes. I do both in support of the network.
A miner is necessarily a full node; there must always be more full nodes than there are miners. And it's not just "in support of the network;" it's in support of yourself. The only way to really know if you have funds or not is to check the full transaction history.