It depends on the state and if it is federal, its hard to win, but it is not hard to drive you out of business, especially if you are a small player. Who can pay to defend that much? I couldnt. Sure you may get the fees back, but that does not help.

There is an entire subset of lawsuits, called SLAPP, that is all about shutting people up.

The tiny players would blow up at the first lawsuit. A defamation suit, even for a small player, can cost half a million just to defend, not counting if you lose. They dont have to actually have a case.

You are correct, of course you will have no where to post online, so you will have lots of time to think about other things.

If every post is worth 100s of thousands in defending against a lawsuit or potentially millions in damages, then the large players can survive longer, but will go out the same.

That is not how that works. Firstly the primary purpose of 230 is not restricted by the good faith clause in any way. Secondly the good faith section covers otherwise illegal actions, if they object it is good faith per courts.

There are free hosting sites and free SSL certs. It may take a little knowledge, depending on the host setup, but it is quite easy.