[logifail]

> I watch things slowly degrade and break down due to bit-rot and version creep [..] > There are days when the kids can't watch a particular movie and I find out it's because a particular kube component failed (after an hour of root-causing) because I haven't touched it in 2 years. I then have regrets about my life choices. [..] > I now wish I had a synology, flat network and cloud everything possible

No snark intended, but this sounds as though you chose to include a lot of unnecessary complexity into your self-hosting, then discovered that there's almost always a cost to unnecessary complexity(?)