I’ve been in a similar situation looking for a NAS setup that would work for me, and with my current limited knowledge. I settled on the HomePiNAS. It’s a custom PCB they make that mounts a CM5, up to 6 drives, 2.5G NIC, and x2 m.2 slots all in a 3D printable case they can ship for you too. Put on Open Media Vault or whatever else you want and it’s good to go. I was interested because it’s not a complicated setup, allows for AI chips to be added or whatever else you want to use, has a 2.5G nic, and is low power.

Keep swapping the OS (or have different memory cards) and play around with whatever software you come across that peaks your interest.