I'm still torn apart if I want to try to be profitable (I'd need bigger channels probably and close channels to friends which almost never route transactions, the onchain fees are quite high at times especially if big nodes just close the channel for no reason every now and then...) or try to "help" the lightning network.

Connecting to lots of obscure nodes with no/low fees is the most helpful for the network. Or is being profitable also the most helpful for the network because it provides liquidity where it is needed?