Cheaper than it is now! I think it was about $1100 at the time, definitely the most expensive part of the whole setup

I've also done a full network replica (all the data indexed in a postgres) on a raspberry pi (with an 8tb nvme attached via a hat). Its really not expensive to do . And if I wanted to drop data older than say 3 months, it would be even cheaper still.

The default pds packaging takes care of SSL, but thats not a requirement, just something we try to make easy for users.

Also at:// URIs are of the form at://DID/..., and your human readable handle is bound to your DID through DNS TXT records _atproto.roshangeorge.dev, but applications all know to render that as just roshangeorge.dev. That DID points to a document that specifies where your server lives, so the HTTPS/WSS routes can live wherever you want them to.

Also likes/replies/etc on your posts go in their authors repos not yours, your intuition is correct there.

people get so up in arms when you suggest there might be a limit on how many people they can follow.

fwiw, the Knuth quote is "premature optimizations are the root of all evil"