Makes sense, my tiny brain couldn’t formulate half of the stuff you included in your reply. I have been reading the news about Nvidia and their cards, and it also makes sense that if the money doesn’t have to be spent because there are easier ways to get the tech, then that should be the first things to try.
Same! Distrohopped for years, but for ~15 years Debian has been rock solid for both desktop and home minimal server.