Total number of NOs is not really a great metric to try to think about longer-term because it changes drastically depending on when we enable permissionless entry to the validator set. For example if we have some mechanism by end of 2023 (even if it’s a pilot) that allows solo operators to participate somehow, the total number of NOs shoots up but it doesn’t materially affect decentralization since stake is not well-dispersed across the set anymore.
The general metric we try to control for is that no Lido operator should have > 1% of total ETH stake via their Lido share, which isn’t the case right now. If we did “simple math” we should have onboarded more operators (i.e. so that we have a total of around 30-35 after the onboarding is concluded since Lido has > 30% of stake sahre), but because deposits have drastically slowed down we didn’t want to take the risk of onboarding more operators than would be sustainable. If we see deposits pick back up we can always do an onboarding round sooner rather than later.
Onboarding more NOs in general is always good if we can do so, provided that the NOs that we onboard do not increase any of the risks or deteriorate the targets that we have as a part of our Operator Set Strategy.