The cost of running a pool is explored here to some degree. For a delegator, there in one decisive factor, which is cost per minted block. If that cost was 0, all pools would be equal in terms of ROA no matter how many blocks they win p.a. Luck is not a factor, because is works both ways and in the long run it equals out. Large pools have significant lower cost, because a fix amount (i.e. 340) will be deducted from the reward of many blocks. A small pool can still be attractive, but only if it finds some (creative) way of lowering the cost for the delegator - at least IMHO.
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