[sujinge9]

Sure, but it's economies of scale. You only have to do the hard stuff once at the source, instead of having every node do it individually.

Also if stuff goes wrong in the node model, the customer will blame you even if it's mostly their fault. So it's also important for brand benefits.

[bryanrasmussen]

On the other hand if stuff goes wrong in the centralized model it goes wrong for everyone everywhere, and it almost certainly is really your fault.

I agree trade-offs, but I sometimes feel the gain has not been all that great.