Hi Guys
Hoping some of the smarter people here can educate me. I see a lot of mentions of run your own node.  But what is the point of it? If my node never wins a block then what impact can it actually have on bitcoins security?

I see a reason for doing it if you are a merchant and want to see if transactions are sent to you immediately, or if you want to do it for LN. But why run one as a normal bitcoin dude?