Worst case I have all my OCRed documents as raw files which I can migrate to whereever.
Files still exist. For my case encrypted as well. My backups roll on the data, not the container.
But I’m not trying to convince you, I tried answering the questions :)
And two answer your last question clearly: I survived before paperless, I’d get along without it. I find a new tool to mitigate my manual labor as good as possible - if that’s not possible then jo harm done. I know I’m flexible, I can learn new tools and I’m never vendor or tool locked-in. I have a high level of self confidence when it comes to my tool chain and how I’d adapt any part of it - from password manager to cloud storage and my mail flow.
To be honest I couldn’t self host anything if I’d had the fear of being lost if a tool is discontinued.
Ahh g I don’t use paperless as an exclusive document storage but as a pure manager. It searches and tags but doesn’t have exclusivity over any files but it’s own indices!
It doesn’t provide more value than jellyfin in that regard - make it visible and accessible.