I'll start. Did you know you can run a headless version of JD2 on a raspberry pi? It's not the greatest thing in the world, but sometimes its nice to throw a bunch of links in there and go to sleep.
As a German, I can confirm: Usenet is the way to go. For me it's fileleechers (invite only afaik) for German content, and nzbgeek for the rest. All combined with Sabnzbd and Plex. Will have a look at your guide tho!