flashmedallion

If you’re happy to pay whatever it costs to host then there’s no other disadvantage to this.

The only thing I can think of is if you somehow end up at odds with an admin of a big instance and they defederate your instance. Or perhaps in the future major instances decide to only federate with instances of a certain size, for some as of now unpredictable reason

Just donate if you want to support your server.

Awards are special actions reserved for people who pay, that don’t improve the platform anyway. It’s enshittification.

Who does that select for though.

Those with the most time? The most money? The most aggressive approach?
Competition doesn’t tend to produce holistic quality; only efficiency.