I’ll make the obligatory unRAID suggestion. It fits a lot of less intensive scenarios like what you’re describing. It does carry a cost, and the licensing model is “interesting”, but it has top-tier ease of use, especially around container apps. It would also allow you to use that 1tb ssd as a cache drive since the OS would run from usb (well, in-memory but stored on usb). You can also trial it for free for 30 days and if you don’t like it, there’s plenty of good suggestions in the thread already

Everything is just peachy this week except that I’m still trying to sort out why my I’m unable to access the internet when I’m connected to my unraid wireguard instance.

I am also finally ready to ditch my plex instance, too. Got some self-inflicted permissions issues sorted and it’s been smooth sailing for long enough that I’m ready to make the switch