The protocol is not centralized, nor the nodes. Loot at LN like the Internet, there are big sites and small sites, and they coexist pacefuly.
Anyway, I recently closed my node, similar situation as you, after I discovered it was really not needed anymore and it is not nice to maintain it, specially if you have a lot of channels. Have a look:
Your experience is really matches mine...I've been running a node for a couple of years, testing different implementations, discrete liquidity and few tens of channels. Recentrly switched to automated channel management scripts and it kind of works better, but overally running a public node it's probably not worth the burdain. A private node with private channels is still annoying to manage if compared to all the other mobile solutions out there.
