Yeah, but the form factor of the steam deck makes it more appealing if I want to set It up in the living room

Ok. I get it now. I’ve been trying to build something cheap as a Linux gaming setup and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m better off buying the steam deck.

I would stick with SMB and SSH(SFTP). SMB for content sharing and accessible on any device like PCs or phones. SSH, which includes SFTP, for accessing everything else on the server.