I tried OpenBSD back when my fastest computer was measured in Mhz. There wasn't very much software available for it at the time. Later I tried NetBSD (I was on gentoo at the time) and I really liked the ports system because it was easy to get all kinds of software, but I didn't see any sort of advantage at the time over Linux. Now the OS isn't terribly important, as long as it's Posix, has compilers, and doesn't force me to use Systemd. But the problem I've been having with the embedded hardware is they all have screwy binary blob bootloaders and it would be so much easier if I could just point them at a damn kernel. So I guess my second requirement is that the hardware not just work, but be decently supported by the OS without having to do stupid trickery like transplanting binaries from one system to another because I don't have a way to build the damn boot loader.

Heh, the homelab reddit is interesting. Lots of interesting hardware there.

I liked the size of those little Raspis, but they just didn't have enough RAM.

Your addiction doesn't seem as bad, you seem to have found a way to offload some of the hardware. I hold on to mine until the resale or usefulness drops to zero... I guess I could recycle some of it, but they're just so damned neat!