A 1tb microSD card is a pretty good compromise. Its just as fast as ssd storage and significantly easier to install.

Unless you only play indie games I would save for a larger micros card. You can get 1tb ones pretty cheap now and they’re just as fast as the internal storage. You don’t need anything else.

Is the end of this headline “because they haven’t updated in 3 years”?

I always use Ubuntu Server. It was my first distro 20 years ago and it’s still where I’m most comfortable.