I agree; I liked bitcoin better when it was it was more decentralised and anybody with a computer could contribute. I bid on Ebay on an early mining rig - just missed out and gave up on the idea. But it was when people started putting serious money into ASICS that I first realised that it really was going to turn into something big. By that time though, I had enough wealth in Bitcoins that I couldn't bring myself to spend significant money on buying more.

I also owned a fairly powerful (for the day) computer that I used exclusively for games, and kept off the internet so that I didn't have to slow it down with antivirus software. Had I used it to mine bitcoins I would have made a lot more of them, but I suspect I wouldn't have actually ended up in a financially very different place. What was important to me was the ability to buy a house and live debt free - a position in which I now find myself. If I'd had twice the number of bitcoins I would have reached that point sooner - but on the grand scale of things, not a lot sooner. If I slightly regret anything, it's that I toyed with designing a hardware wallet back in 2010 but didn't have any spare time to devote to the project.
 
Any particular reason you want to own a block? It was fun to see the 'mining' symbol next to the funds when you run Bitcoin-QT. I get some real satisfaction from having been there from relatively early on.