Hm ... shouldn't "providing access to the blockchain" be one of the main duties of the witnesses? Is there a different API only for broadcasting the latest blocks, or do they provide APIs that are firewalled so only other witnesses can use it?
You do have a witness list - add a column there for "has active RPC endpoint", so that's also something people can consider when choosing whom to give the witness votes to. Perhaps even a "red flag column", which would show a red flag for any witness that is either:
- not running a public API
- having a price feed too far from the average and/or the coinmarketcap feed
- Having an "unhealthy" APR wish. This is of course subjective what's considered "unhealthy" (anything above 0 in my personal opinion), but "three times the average" is probably a more objective yard stick
- Too high "missed" ... perhaps 5%?
- Running a "too old" version ... or perhaps not, it's probably healthy with a mix of different versions on the network.
- Not participating on the test network
- Other?