Relays should be simpler to run independently of the issue at hands but with aligned incentives, relay runners wouldn't worry about @Hodl Hodl straining their relay. They would celebrate success, brag about nostr going exponential and get others to figure out how to get a piece of the relay pie aka how to drive down relay prices.

I suspect, @Hodl Hodl would happily eat a monthly server cost of $100 but right now, relays can't deal with this demand. You'd have to negotiate something to not get blocked as spam on a case by case basis. So why doe HH not run their own relay? I guess because they bought into the nostr narrative of not needing to do so and because they don't want to be in a position to censor users.