Fair enough. For anyone who has a lot of experience, there are plenty of other options. I started on this two years ago, but plan to explore other systems when I build my next one. I don’t consider myself an expert by any means.
Discussion
You can always get a $200 Mac mini (even an 8 year old model will work great) and throw StartOS on it.
Umbrel is super flashy but lacks maturity. StartOS is not flashy but seems to have more focused development.
Again, I wouldn’t put a million dollars on a StartOS machine anyways.