I see what you mean. This has never sounded like a compelling argument to me: wouldn't the ideal block be full of actual transactions, with the associate utxo lookups and signature verifications cost? The opposite to me feels like saying that I prefer to use my car as a container for stuff because that's cheaper than actually going places.

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The ideal block is the most costly block to verify…and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a good thing in fact. That said, I think even for individuals running a node just to verify their own transactions (by somewhat awkward definition called “non-economic” nodes) full blocks won’t be cost prohibitive. The idea that making your node public to help others download the blockchain is a bit misguided, but I can see why people don’t like downloading crap…it wastes time for no benefit to self.