The best lawn is one that serves a purpose for a reasonably sized group of people. Feeling or being compelled to maintain something you don’t want, that’s of no value to you, or nature, is the worst part of lawn culture to me. Nobody should be expected to have a lawn they don’t want, if you have a better use for the space, do that instead if you want.
Sounds like their lawn is at least good for their community. Maybe it’s suboptimal urban planning, but that’s far less bad than wanton waste of resources in my book.
I’ve learned a number of tools I’d never used before, and refreshed my skills from when I used to be a sysadmin back in college. I can also do things other people don’t loudly recommend, but fit my style (Proxmox + Puppet for VMs), which is nice. If you have the right skills, it’s arbitrarily flexible.
What electricity costs in my area. $0.32/KWh at the wrong time of day. Pricier hardware could have saved me money in the long run. Bigger drives could also mean fewer, and thus less power consumption.
Google, selfhosting communities like this one, and tutorial-oriented YouTubers like NetworkChuck. Get ideas from people, learn enough to make it happen, then tweak it so you understand it. Repeat, and you’ll eventually know a lot.