My friend made her own starter, then after she convinced me to get into it, she dried the starter into little flakes and shipped it to me. I pulled it out, rehydrated it over the week and then lo I had sourdough! So cool you can dry that and then re-use it.

It isn't hard to create a new starter from flour and water.

There is a dramatic difference in taste in bread between old starter and fresh starter though.

Restoring from a backup is also much faster than creating a starter from scratch.