Scoundrel on Nostr: Yes, I understand that. All notes must be transmitted through relays. In order to ...

Yes, I understand that. All notes must be transmitted through relays. In order to globally search notes, they are best transmitted by the half a dozen Nostr relays that act as indexers.

In order to communicate with a follower however, those specific relays aren't needed. It is trivial to communicate through the users' inbox or outbox relays, which can easily be any relay you want, including self hosted, single-user relays.

You are right that there are more than two architectures, not just a simple binary between clearnet and darknet. Specifically, I am referring to using onion services because Tor is awesome and because other darknets are kinda dogshit.

I don't know why you brought up CSAM. I haven't mentioned it so far. If most of Nostr was on Tor then I wouldn't give a shit if it had CSAM somehow. On the clearnet though, I worry about federal agents and three letter agencies caring a little too much about our protocol if Child Porn posting becomes very prevalent.