[JLuterek]

This seems like an old view of the current ecommerce landscape. Sure Magento is still an option, but as you pointed out it should only be considered for basic implementations where it can be used off-the-shelf with minimal customization.

Building a fully custom solution is the most expensive option today and really unnecessary. There is no reason to build your own product management system when so many flexible options exist. Just as I would never recommend building a server and push people towards containerization and the cloud, I recommend finding components that can be leveraged to streamline the custom build.

In terms of high-end headless systems, the market is large and growing. Some leading composable commerce SaaS offerings can offer free tiers and have pre-built front-ends and integrations.