we did more testing.

channel design seems to be more like the venerable winMX than fopnu.

Tested with 2 owners present, 1 set to host.
added another user as OP. turned off hosting and channel collapsed.
Hosting back on, made user a manager.
After 5 minutes for that to propagate? left (stopped) the channel on my client.
Channel collapsed with a non-hosting co-owner and a manager level present.
restarted channel with my client still set to host, channel created but sitting alone in split.

Then another user joined my side of the split channel.
I turned off hosting and collapsed my side to consolidate the channel.

An hour later we reconnected to the other side with the hosting co-owner.

Observing channel behavior for a few days now seems to confirm the initial observations.

DarkMX, at least in its current form, requires the channel owner remain online to keep the channel open.

That harkens back to the days of the venerable winMX.

Tixati allowed for the channel owner to take a break for up to 7 days, as long as another user set to level => OP remained online.

Fopnu uses a protocol that allows the owner to go on hiatus as long as 1 or more users with any level above "Normal" are online.

Whether or not the DarkMX channel protocol over TOR can or will be modified to allow channels to stay open without owner present, I do not know. I hope some wizardry to accomplish this will be forthcoming in the months/years ahead.