A relay is a web server with 90% of the useful bits of a web server turned off. And 10% useful bits of a web server turned on. The obvious thing to do is turn the whole server on, and you get a relay, you get nostr, and something 10x more useful.
Discussion
And open up your attack surface
The opposite is true, isnt it? Nostr has a disproporitiately high attack surface of the web, compared to the rest of it, in terms of utility and scale.
The more software you are running on a computer, the larger your attack surface, generally speaking.
Well, yes. But you reduce the attack surface most by turing off nostr. Not by turning off the useful tried and tested parts. You gain the full utility by turning on all. The attack surface of nostr despited being less than 0.001% of the web, is disproportionately high.
Yes, lets get mod_cgi on relays!