I had an idea a while ago for a "telescope as a service" platform. The idea was to build relatively small telescopes and put them in ideal places (maybe partner with existing observatories). They would be fully controllable via api and from a web interface. I was thinking it would be a good educational resource for educators, you could connect and use a telescope right in your classroom during the day, on the other side of the world where it is dark. Researches could buy time and program them to observe the sky as well since as you said, even small telescopes can be useful for some types of astronomy.