I was about to set up a witness node on a VPS, until I read this...
Witness pay would make it a lot easier to set up what I'm trying to do with LEARNCOIN and video tutorials for bitshares, but odds are good I would end up spending money on a VPS and time on a witness campaign only to find out I haven't been a member of the bitshares community long enough to get the required votes....
Backup witness pay means you get at least SOMETHING for your efforts...