It sounds like your goal is a headless server for running various services on? If that's the case, I'd stick with a well supported, mainstem LTS distro. Rocky Linux (RHEL9) or Ubuntu Server is where I'd start.
Typical software stack for me is Cockpit (bare metal management), Nginx Proxy Manager, and Portainer CE.
If your system has a decent amount of memory, >32GB, ZFS in a raidz2 configuration for storage. Keep in mind that if you go the ZFS route that it's memory hungry by design.
For backup software, I ended up going with Restic but there are plenty of good solutions out there. Just make sure that you have one.
Hopefully this gives you an idea where to start looking. Ultimately it comes down to a lot of research, realizing there are a lot of valid ways to go about this, and then choosing the one that makes the most sense to you.
I've been keeping an eye on GameVault as it does exactly what I want from a server perspective. I'm just waiting for a Linux native client or integration the HeroicLauncher or Lutris. The devs are pretty active in this community too!
I having one of those things... Ya' know a picture with words...
Heroic Games Launcher could be the answer. The GameVault devs wouldn't need to reinvent the wheel with a Linux client dealing with all the proton sand boxing. Just add to the heroic launcher.
Looks like someone has already had a similar thought too...
Any progress on the plans for a native Linux client or Web Interface? Last I checked there was only a Windows client available (although it could be ran within proton to be fair).
While Windows is no doubt the popular gaming OS ATM, I think you'll find a much higher population of Linux users amongst the self-hosted crowd.
Your service is exactly what I want for my GOG library, so I'd love to give it a spin!
Look into mumble. It's NOT a discord replacement but does provide a good quality, low latency, OSS voice chat. Mumble + Signal group chat is what my friends and I use for gaming. Seems to work well.
A last-gen refurbished pixel + GrapheneOS has been my go-to for years now. Gives me all the polished featured of flagship hardware with regular security updates and privacy.
Bonus points, the google play compatibility shim means you can run 99% of apps that are on the play store.
Just test the refurbished phone thoroughly on the stock os in case you need to swap it out.
You sound like the ideal candidate for a refurbished Pixel 7 / 8 from amazon.
Test its hardware thoroughly on the stock os in case you need to return it.
Install GrapheneOS using the Web installer.
Install Droid-ify into your main profile from the f-droid web page. It looks much better than the official f-droid client and actually has a working auto-update
Create a work profile. I use an app called Shelter as the work profile admin app. This allows you to auto freeze your big-tech apps to help with battery life / privacy. Install google services from the built-in GrapheneOS app store.
BTW you CAN do DNS in a unifi gateway. It just requires making dnsmasq entries through shell. Perfect solution? No. But it gets you there with no additional hardware.
I personally use CheckMK.
One thing is that it can be a lot to take in at first and took me a while to get used to it.