The fact that it’s an option that even remotely works is my point. They sell hardware. They don’t support software. The community does that. There is something to be gained from having a uniform platform for learning self hosting responsibly.

A Raspberry pi isn’t particularly great at any one thing. It’s greatest strength comes in bundling everything you need in a box at an affordable price. Once you know where your pain points are then you can build/design a system that overcomes those shortcomings.

Having a starter kit would be an easy way to get more people in the space. Would it cost $35 of course not. Level1Techs made their KVM to meet their own requirements and then the community benefits. To me, this project has that kind of energy. Or at least the potential for it.

Raspberry pi was able to do it with $35.

So E2EE but they have a copy of the keys to use at their discretion. Cool, we have digital landlords now.

E2EE* plaintext with extra steps

My car has an aux cable to connect to my phone. The cable died again so I’ve been rediscovering the radio and I’ve been been hearing commercials for whatsapp. They advertise E2EE as a feature. What you are saying is a contradiction to that. Is it possible to have E2EE AND have them sell your convo to third parties?

Kinda ironic that you didn’t cover your email address in a privacy community

Better options have already been mentioned. With that said another option might be torrenting.

Automation

They didn’t get rid of the “don’t.” They got rid of the whole motto.

Reolink cameras look like they check all of your boxes. They can be self contained systems with a “recorder box” (actual term is NVR) that you keep on your property out of harms way or it can be a DIY PC with a program called Blue Iris. There is a variety of cameras to choose from with different features like Wifi, POE, PTZ, solar powered, etc. Spend as little or as much as you want. As you mentioned in your post, this will be pricey up front but will be cheaper in the long run.