> If it's the case that nodes who stake more coins are getting paid more coins, then all of my analysis holds

Thats fine, but it's an important clarification. All the tokens _have_ been minted already, and _are_ just being distributed. The mechanics are different. Owning 1 coin is one potential vote in a lottery to determine the validity of a proposed block. This is not the generation of new coins.

In any case, regarding nodes and payment, that process is being phased out by their new governance model which was just released the other day: https://algorand.foundation/the-algo/algo-governance.