Ultimately we need to make nodes super simple to set up and maintain with the click of a button. That's the vision...
With 6926 nodes and a estimated earning of 0.0369 ZEN/day, That works out to $41.84 a month gross. Subtract the $10 per month for the VPS because zend needs 2gig of ram to run. I might make $31 this month providing I don't get anymore "challenge exceed the max run time".
I am convinced that the nodes are simple enough, if not too simple. There are already 6925 other people that have figured it out.
Good, glad you think running sec nodes are easy...a lot of people don't. What you see today with services sec nodes perform--mainly offering encrypted comm link via TLS, processing txs and hosting full blockchain--are just the start. Plan is to build out services in almost an a la carte type of menu so node operators have additional income opportunities and the network has more value. As we layer on complexity, it'd help a lot to offer simple software products that maintain high quality standards.