[znpy]

> Hear me out: the Internet was supposed to be about peer-to-peer connected computers, and the privileged roles ISPs and later "cloud" providers assumed changed that for the worse.

No it wasn't. The internet was supposed to be a a global network of networks, and it is.

> It was SUPPOSED to enable me, myself, hosting my videos, on my computer(s) and making them available to whomever I want to, including everyone.

No it wasn't. ARPANet was supposed to be a network of computing facilities that could withstand a nuclear attack, and Internet was the effort of opening up such infrastructure to scientific and commercial entities (universities and companies). For quite a while the idea of the general public having internet at home wasn't even an idea.

> Everyone was supposed to be a SMTP (e-mail) host.

No they weren't. Pretty much nobody had their own dedicated computer, and they just had a shell account on a shared computer dedicated to a specific organization. And the administrator of such computer would set up mailing facilities on such host. Hence the local-delivery (/var/spool/mail and stuff).