I depend on people like you as I have zero knowledge on this. Keep pondering. Maybe a rating system like some of the charity rating services or car reliability sites?
Discussion
yes, ideally for our priorities a group of trusted bitcoiners/devs who could give test results and info on what to look for in terms of "out of the ordinary" chips/switches on boards.
From what I can guess the raspberry pi boards might be considered trustworthy(?). The other orange/rock pi type boards and those generic mini PCs would be where I hesitate to trust outright.