Solid question. Mostly curiosity, education, love of the game. I started with raspian + docker, and wanted to see if the grass was greener. I could probably achieve everything I’m doing now on Debian + Docker. If I tore it all down, I’d probably go back to Debian + Docker managed with Dockge (probably) just for the simplicity.
Automagic snapshots though, I still haven’t learned to take a back up before tinkering, I probably never will. So lxcs are set to snap shot at appropriate intervals, so if I try change a thing, fuck it up, it’s incredibly convenient for me to roll it back and try again. A solveable problem in Debian, I’m sure, but I like how Docker does it. Native WebUI is nice. I like how Proxmox handles file permissions, it’s running my raid and I just bind mount the zpool.
Dunno, my stuff works, I’m comfortable with it. There’s more for me to learn yet. But if I were of a learning mood, I’d probably experiment with Nix.
That’s me. I don’t regret not pursuing a career though because my achievements don’t make me feel accomplished. When I get a service running I mostly feel relieved. But, I want the things self hosting provides, so I do the work self hosting demands.