I believe we should have a discussion on why it's so important to defend the bitcoin network to the death.
(metaphorically speaking, we don't have to sacrifice any life.)
I don't think we need to exaggerate things here, bitcoin's network has been running a unprecedented 99% uptime if I'm not mistaken for the last 10 years or so. Meaning there are really people without getting incentives to keep the network secure.
And nodes will keep growing regardless, it is decentralised and this is one of bitcoin's strength and everyone knows this since the beginning. And it is not that it is going down a bit, so defend it to death is such a exaggeration.