The ideal personal / home server for regular people is just leaving an old laptop turned on.
Discussion
Mini PCs are super cheap and powerful now. Old laptops are more likely to die, technology has a lifespan.
I also like mini pcs but old laptops are cool, have a screen can failover briefly to battery and are usually way over powered.
We easier to just use the desktop with screen though for setup for a normie.
Then of course have options for backing up
Mini PC that I bought 4 months ago nearly doubled in price.. I shoulda got 2 of em..