Full nodes are too expensive for their intended purpose

I went to impulse buy a mini pc and 2 TB SSD to run a full node only to find out that will run me well over $500 and 2 TB SSD will not be enough space in the next handful of years and in need to spend more money.

How does bitcoin expect to have world wide node operators when people in first world countries with full time employment (<1% global population) are not willing to fork over full node money and the prices are only continuing to expand for storage along with total storage needed also expanding?

I realize that pruned nodes are a thing but what happens when the only full nodes being run are corporate types that have gov and investor eyes on their backs?

Will bitcoin be able to maintain its white papers ethos of peer to peer e cash at the current rate? I would argue it already failed at the original claims. Maybe it will be successful as some other thing.

Please assist. Not trying to be mean but these topics affect people’s savings so I believe they should be straight to the point so common people can make educated decisions.