And IPFS does not work (or at least, has no guarantee) in the event of a file has no hosts. So the only way you could host it yourself safely would be to use something like P2P and distribute the files. Either at large scale (like FileCoin proposes), or by having something like RaspPi's in 2 family members closets so you have redundancy in your hosting - should your house burn down.
Since I was using IPFS that wasn't a problem, since I also had a few other machines hosting the same blocks from different places (including one in a different country).
I love IPFS, but it still needs a live server to pin a resource. Luckily you can host IPFS stuff (theoretically) on a tiny box because any amount of traffic becomes "instantly" distributed. But, still having it hosted is the only way to guarantee your content is actually available.
Did you miss the last part where I said multiple machines are hosting it?
When you mentioned other machines, I assumed you meant that other machines had accessed the content and effectively temporarily seed it, as is the way IPFS works.
If your point was truly that other machines have your content pinned, then what is your point about "hosting it on your laptop"? Seems a bizarre description if your laptop can be closed, but the other machines have the content actually pinned. It's hosted by the other machines, not your laptop.
If you "plug and forget" from a paid centralized service not using IPFS you have even less recourse.
With IPFS it doesn't matter whether the blocks are locally on your system or in a paid cloud, the blocks are readily available because they are transparently available from BOTH.
If you stop paying the cloud the blocks are still available but slower if they are on a slower pipe.