I find it to be an admirable goal to try to keep node operation costs low and accessible to the average user. On the other hand, if we are able to keep the resource requirements of nodes at the level of, say, whatever the latest Raspberry Pi model on a residential Internet connection can handle, I'm not sure how helpful it will be if the demand for inclusion in blocks results in transaction fees prices out more users. Stated differently, if the cost or contention of using the network rises to the point of excluding the average user from making transactions, then they probably aren't going to care that they can run a node at trivial cost.
If we're approaching the block size from a resource usage standpoint, it seems to me that someone is going to be excluded one way or another. Not raising the block size will exclude some users from sending transactions while raising the block size will exclude some users from running nodes. The latter seems preferable to me because more users will grow the ecosystem, which should increase the value of the ecosystem, which should increase the cost that entities are willing to pay to run nodes.
I see two primary points of view / objectives clashing in this debate:
1) Decentralization and stability even if it retards growth of the ecosystem
2) Push the system's load as far as we are comfortable in order to accommodate the growth it is experiencing
It's clear to me that Core developers have a responsibility to maintain a stable platform for the ecosystem. I think it's less clear that they have a responsibility to grow it or ask node operators to expend more resources in order to support more users. As an operator of several nodes, I can anecdotally state that I find their resource usage to be trivial and I welcome more load.
- Jameson