Goal is to get data on reentry, if it can be achieved with small modification on already build SS, than why not. I'm bit surprised by number of clogging problems in test flight 2 and 3.

approx one beer every 15-20 min. How is it a crime or over-drinking?

Syncthing sync files, it is all does.

what exactly do you mena under subdomains? Any DNS provider will support adding NS entries for subdomains if you want to host you sub-zone somwhere, And any should allow you to use names with "." in it for "fake" subzone, like
a.subzone1 IN A x.x.x.x
a.subzone2 IN A y.y.y.y

you do not need passport inside Australia. But in other hand you still paying for driver licence/photo id.

Blu Tac?

Symphonium is another good mobile client.

What is wrong with stock debian installer?

Do not access volumes directly on filesystem. path may change. If you need access data on a volume just spawn temporary container an mount that volume.

I bit a bullet and re-implement all automation on NoderRed leaving HA only dashboard. It is still not great, as Node Red is gui based. So may be Pythom + MQTT is best way for home automation.

Absence of Yaml is exactly biggest annoyance in modern HA. It just not configurable without million of clicks. Just try to apply same automation procedure to other set of devices. In text you just copy block, in GUI you have to redo everything from scratch.

Just run old plain Xorg.