Proxmox isn’t the only serious option for a home lab, and that’s exactly why I think this point matters. You can build a great setup around TrueNAS, Unraid, plain Debian, or a carefully maintained Docker host if that’s what fits the job. None of those are fake alternatives, and none of them need to be dismissed just to make Proxmox look better. But once you have to actually live with your setup day after day, Proxmox starts to stand out less for the platform itself and more for everything around it.