Yeah, I kind of feel the same way.

My small group of affiliated miners (kind of a brain trust group, all separate, but sharing collective knowledge) has been toying with the idea of some kind of "mini miner" that packs enough hashing power to be worthwhile (5-7 TH) but also affordable to manufacture, so one could have the ability to scale on a budget, but more importantly on their own terms. A shelf full of mini miners, in theory, may not be as efficient as the Antminers of the world (hey, maybe they could be with some strong teamwork, and some good folks behind it) but at least we'd have access to them on our own terms vs. being at the mercy of these larger corps. and their mood swing, batch releases, shipping delays, and other complexities.

Feels nearly impossible, without access to chips, though.