Sounds to me like you want an iPhone... There's nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you're getting into which it sounds like you do...
A project like GOS will never have that level of polish and it seems like that's what you're looking for...
While true for some games that require their online services. There's nothing keeping you from downloading a game and backing up the install files on your own media to play later... A lot of games will run without steam open if you just run the executable...
Especially when you'll need to move to be in the office, a trip for the interview includes an extra day or two to see if you'd enjoy living in the area where the office is. .
As others have said, you should really be careful treating your RAID as a backup. I for one do all of my backing up on Playstation 1 memory cards... I had to buy a couple storage containers to store them all, but I guess that technically counts as off-site
My Synology NAS was running for 6+ years before I replaced it last year. And the only reason I replaced it was to upgrade the hardware to be able to act more like a home server running some more demanding services.
I've since given the NAS away to a friend who is still running it... As always back up your data just in case, but I wouldn't expect the hardware to crap out on you too soon
Yes, good point, resource collection is nearly identical to content generation
This is also how I explain it... It's crazy how all these centralized services have made something as old and simple as email seem foreign to people. I'll explain it this way, and still get something like, "but this is a website". To which I say "so is gmail.com"
Can't speak first hand but someone I know has it. Medication and some lifestyle changes keep it manageable for them. I don't mean to lighten the weight of it too much, but I wish you the best.