The bitcoin node as I have been made aware adds to the decentralization of the network.
looking through this article on the backslide of bitcoin node operators in updating their software. This thought sneaked in, why people who run a software that authorize the order or mode of the bitcoin network are inattentive to upgrading their nodes. In his analysis he stated that it takes 3 years for 95% of bitcoin node operators to update their software. I don't run a node, yet, exploring and checking up on what's like to run a node engrosses me. What could be the distraction? Do they forget?
Zombie nodes a lot of times. People spun them up for project 'X' and then when that project didn't work, or get funding, or whatever, they just left them running.
Although, there are a lot of people here trying to run a node on a RPi or an old PC or a $10 VM, a lot of times it's businesses with 'real' hardware in the background and 1TB of storage and 8GB of ram and a bunch of virtual CPU cores is nothing. So when you contacted me to get that project running and I setup core 20 3+ years ago in your data center it was the current version. When the project went nowhere it's still there running because nobody wants to bother taking it down since they may need it sooner or later and it costs them nothing to leave it there.
Side note that is how a lot of data breaches happen in general. Just old things sitting there that nobody maintains since it's not their job.
-Dave