P2P and self hosted stuff is what I want out of the internet, not SaaS style platforms. People's cable modems are almost always on so it's reasonable for them to have some almost-always-on services behind them, but circumstances make it difficult to build viable P2P tech:
- It's tough to monetize since true p2p software can just get pirated. You can't gatekeep to make sure people pay.
- The shortage of IPv4 with the help of buggy insecure operating systems made closed-to-the-outside NAT standard, making peers inaccessible without manual configuration or some helper technology.
- Data hungry government and corporations see independent communication channels as an obstacle to their goals. (See the recent story about five eyes pushing for backdoored crypto in Australia.)