Thanks for the detailed answer! I think it's important that we debunk any speculation from malicious people trying to justify their reasoning about why the DHF would be abused.
It should be pretty clear that having no image-server is nearly as worse as having one that is not highly reliable. And as you said: nobody else wanted to do the job. Developing & setting it up was probably more expensive than it could have been, but based on the time constraints & the circumstances, we can't expect anything better than what you delivered.
So, again: kudos to you and your team for making sure Hive could deliver on its primary social application and obv. this proposal should be voted for! 👍