I use Xigmanas, which is kind of the forgotten grandfather of TrueNas due to a fork/renaming years ago. I like that it's more designed as a embedded image image, so it feels more clean and purpose built.
For the VMs I go with XCP-ng, It's been a long time to recall exactly why I switched away from Proxmox but it had to do with the way that resources got shared by the VMs and the host where I wanted them to have a more distinct split.
They all have their +/- and eventually if it gets taken far enough as a hobby you'll end up finding little adjustments to make that are specific to your needs and setup that make sense only to you.