So let's say you are handling MP3 requests, and are seeing high hop counts in the returned results. You may be able to optimize your own subnet by requesting direct connections to any node IPs that seem to have travelled a large number of hops. I believe that this is a good beginning, but pretty tricky to get right. I believe that clients should take on whatever they see as being to their own advantage. It's kinda an evolutionary logic.
Broader goals have to be served via narrower goals.
BTW, I'm happy to see you hanging out here. The split between the various decentralization factions is causing plenty of work to be duplicated. All rights reserved.