> especially if you're the only one using it

That's not how Tor nodes work. Once you setup a guard node (and it got enough reputation) you will NOT be the only person using it.

> > just run your own guard node that you trust

I guess this approach works fine for an individual, but if everyone has to run their own guard node to be safe, why would anyone connect to your guard node (given it would be risky from their perspective since they aren’t running it themselves).

In other words, if you accept you can’t trust anyone else, why would anyone else trust your node too?

(Edit: Sorry I’m wording it poorly but I hope you get the idea)

The overwhelming majority of people don't customize their path selection in Tor, so you will always get traffic to your new guard node.

I think what GP was getting at is that your solution is not a global one. Not everyone can employ it.

Most people don't need to. Most people use Tor when it's a) completely unnecessary, b) not interesting to the sort of well-funded attacker that could run this many nodes, or c) only needed to avoid identifying them to the service they're requesting from.

I use tor to update my machines, to generate noise, mostly.

>I guess this approach works fine for an individual, but if everyone has to run their own guard node to be safe, why would anyone connect to your guard node

By the time a few percent or tor users are running a guard node, KAX17 would be too diluted to be a real threat.