Out of interest, why do whales receive more coins which lets them setup more masternodes? If I own 1 masternode or 10, my share of the supply is increasing at the same rate. Do you mean the whales can get the next node faster? But i can just put the difference into a shared service and take a 20% hit which is not much different?
There's faster compounding interest for whales since the wait time to setup the next MN is shorter. Yes, in theory one can use a fractional MN service to improve returns. In practice I bet it's not done very often due to needing to trust the MN hosting counterparty. And the 20% hit eats returns a little bit.
OK yep that's what I thought then. I do that through Splawik21 which reminds me he asked me to give feedback which I can confirm has been all good

I never used Node40 but I do know that Perry and Sean behind it regularly add tons of value in different ways from code to connections and are at the front in terms of innovation in our ecosystem.
I don't see it as a real problem then outside of the counterparty risk and loss of 20% profit on the coins not in your own node, besides MNs are just service providers adding value to the network. Without them, no decentralized services, we couldn't think of Evolution either. Miners are the same, if the quantity of miners and hashrate was hypothetically static and they all invested rewards for securing the network in new hardware, their % of the rewards would stay the same too.
I hear you. I've heard very good remarks from those who use Node40's services. A little pricey but worth it if you can't or don't want to roll your own MN.
Still beg to differ about % of reward staying the same for miners though. The wealth concentration effects of masternodes are significant, versus any other way of getting paid in DASH or virtually any other cryptocurrency (as a former miner, that's why I'm here and just run MNs now.

). Developers who submit and execute proposals in return for DASH don't get compound returns, nor do miners, unless they put 1000 DASH to work from their earnings in a MN. Miners must periodically sell old, sometimes worthless hardware and re-invest in upgrades just to keep up, which is a tough job IMO but I'm glad we have enthusiasts that do it. I'm not saying any of this as a criticism against DASH. The compound effects are just a fact. I run a few MNs myself and have successfuly started new ones based just on prior MN payments. I completely agree with your assessment that they unlock features not found in other currencies, and they do ultimately add value. The more MNs we have online, the more we can do.