Gianni, it is getting more and more difficult indeed. Where I live (Bortle 8-9) I can barely see anything at all, yet still visual astronomy is possible with a night vision device. Even through a small refractor it is possible to see Markarian’s chain, M1 and other wonders via IR-filtered view, so not everything is lost. I don’t think I would manage to collect these 20K+ observations had not the telescope been fully automated. Building “robotic” observatory was really the key for me, so the telescope might as well be somewhere else under the dark and steady skies, as I don’t touch the hardware at this point. The romance of having hands-on hardware experience is lost, but this allowed me focus on data pipelines, processing and, also, trying to understand the physical nature of the star, which is more intriguing than messing with the hardware for me. I think if you’re really after building light curves then accessing a remote observatory is a plus.
Max