Plus if an individual does decide to upgrade his/her node, isn't the part of the block where the data resides by way of OP_RETURN prunable? That's probably better than embedding data where it can be a long-term problem for the network, no?
AFAIK there's still no full node software that allow prune only OP_RETURN output. Besides,
it doesn't change the fact you still need to download and verify whole block first.
I understand that. But the point is, what's the lesser evil? Data that's embedded by way of OP_RETURN, or data embedded in the UTXO-set?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for reminding me. I remember posting about this during the Ordinals craze, and that it couldn't be pruned at all?