Nodes definitely benefit from having a certain size. Smaller than 0.5BTC makes things hard.

As for whether it benefits "the community", it surely benefits a lot of people. It benefits the network because there are more routes for payments and more capital deployed. It benefits you because you learn more and interact with the LN in a sovereign way. It benefits those around you because, adding small softwares like LNbits, you can be the custodian of your family and friends LN wallets. Or help out merchants accept bitcoin.

I started a node more than a year ago just for exploring. After all this time, I have routed a lot of bitcoin, I have set up lightning wallets for plenty of close friends and family, I have helped businesses accept lightning in their stores and I even run an ecommerce shop that accepts LN payments straight to my own node.

It's not always easy, and some days you might feel like throwing your node to the trash bin. Yet, I think that every ounce of effort you put in the node, will eventually come back to you as a 10 times larger reward. Have a long-term horizon.