We have lots of great witnesses even further down, mobility is very low unfortunately.
The pay for backup witnesses declined rapidly after rank 21, but the top 70 or so should be able to run a single witness node at a profit. My setup consists of a couple more machines though, I think I'm more of less at break even right now.
I noticed that you wrote something about ass liking up there. Do we have a Crony Witness Gang problem coming up here on #HIVE?
I wouldn't go that far, it's not a new thing. People do communicate and ask each other for favours, that's normal human behaviour I assume.
A Witness is a political figure to some extent while being able to consist of multiple persons. Selfrestrain and Checks are at some points inevitable.