from a technical perspective, no idea.
from a human perspective, should a person really follow more than 20-30 relays?
yes each relay will matter more. users need to be responsible for mirroring their own content, as well as content posted by others that is important.
It is possible for a relay to pre-cache or act on behalf of a client public key to make it easier just to connect to them. Sure it’s trust, maybe a paid service, but you can always add other relays too - but that one relay would help reduce how many you need.
this is not about relays people have for subscribing, but relays found in notes, and clients connecting to that.. if that becomes a thing, then the number of relays we connect to will grow exponentional
You could always have a pool of say three ephemeral websockets that connect to relay hints when you’re missing data and then disconnect. Or you could be recommended new relays to connect to permanently based on volume of events seen first or unique events.
Maybe a few bootstrap relays are all you need and then it can be mostly automated.
