bumping this - labbing is the way to go. get some lenovo tinys or dell optiplex micros - minimum 3 if you want to experiment with clustering and HA/failover scenarios. you can sometimes find them at recyclers or being sold as lots on ebay. anything with an i5 6th gen or better for lower power consumption, minimum 8GB ram/machine, maybe 256GB SSD.

build out a sick *arr server to replace your streaming subscriptions.

build a pihole container to cut down ads and unknown telemetry data from your smart devices.

build everything - learn linux, containerization, spin up Windows Server VMs using the evaluation copies - the world is your oyster. :-)

my dad was a carpenter, god rest his soul - i hope you find the same passion for technology as that man did for a power tool.