Yes, the network is supposed to create coins out of thin air and a percentage goes to MaidSafe, who sells it on open market.
You have IT problems. If I need 2TB of capacity for off-site backup, I can pay for that by donating 4TB to the network and that’s a good deal.
You’ve been on this forum for a while so you should know that’s how the SAFE network is supposed to work (actually you need to donate 4x (not 2x) and then have to get GET to earn SAFE to be able to buy storage - many months of waiting and uncertainty).
500 MAID buys you 500 MB, not 500 GB. [@happybeing: this is speculation, not the price of SAFE storage, because storage costs will be calculated automatically by the network based on supply and demand, as will farming rewards, so it’s complicated and we’ll have to see how this works! ]
Maybe. I already said I would consider Symform for backup of my data. It wouldn’t be my only copy, so that doesn’t worry me.