The ISS orbit is low enough to be affected by atmospheric drag (which slows it down so the orbit gets lower still, increasing the drag, etc.) and it needs fairly regular boosts to keep it orbiting. There is also a truly amazing amount of junk in LEO which poses a constant threat of collision damage to the ISS. If they detect a possible collision, the ISS can be maneuvered a bit to avoid it. And yet after all the effort to keep everything safe, the current Soyuz escape capsule was damaged by a meteor collision to the cooling system.

My desire for a much higher orbit is an attempt to minimize all of those factors because I still hope the ISS can become the research center it was touted to be.

Morty