>> when you pin it to a service you're paying for. >So. A centralized service responsible for keeping your data. How is this different from literally anything else?

Because in addition to being like anything else, your data has a lifecycle in the network. Even if you as an initial provider of data lose interest in it, the network can hold onto it for their own purposes. The question of what data is important becomes decentralized and democratized. So long as at least 1 person says something is important and is willing to pay the resources to pin it, the data exists and can be utilized by any consumers.

>> it may still be in the network so long as the data is getting active use. >"Maybe" makes this essentially useless.

No, it doesn't. Computer systems are built on a long stack of maybes.

> It really doesn't.

You can't imagine it; it must not exist.