“Scalability” by constantly increasing the block size isn’t really scalability. If monero ever sees high network usage, expanding blocks will push node storage requirements so high that only a small number of nodes will continue to run, destroying decentralization.
I don't have the math at hand but I'm pretty sure at the rate the blockchain is growing and the rate that disk space cost is decreasing, this should not be an issue for quite a few years. I do agree that it will eventually be a problem; at some point, all blockchains will have to move to layer 2 solutions for real scaling.
Bandwidth is the bottleneck not disk space. I fear that a lot of projects are moving to layer 2 too late. Layer 2 makes bitcoin so much more usable that as a result more hobbyists are running L1 nodes.
Hope not. But if you compare the cost per gigabyte and internet connection, you'll get some interesting numbers and it's only gonna get cheaper. That's what Monero community counts on. So it hopefully won't be a problem.
On top of that, node operators can still run pruned node.
