That’s assuming an attacker will play nice with URL forming and discovering edge cases in POSTing shaped data to the service. Just encrypting is still weak security if the whole front-end web and API surface isn’t hardened.

What’s not on the internet isn’t known by the internet.

After starting my move away from Windows to Linux in earnest 5-6 years ago I share that enthusiasm I got back for homelabs and self hosting. And yeah - I passed 50 during the journey as well.

How about hosting an ADS-B receiver, tracking nearby air traffic. It doesn’t serve any practical purpose other than participating in the crowd sourced network that feeds sites like FlightAware and FlightRadar24 (and you get a free subscription by participating)

As with many others here- Wireguard and public IP. Add to that I can choose between split and full tunnel to either use the connected network for anything not on my network (split) or have everything routed through the network (full tunnel).

It works almost all the time. The times it doesn’t usually can be attributed to me not switching off my wireless mouse.