Few reasons. One, to help me advance in my career. Two, because I like the idea of open source. Three, tech business are kind of acting evil for money, so I’m going back to being self reliant and piracy.
As someone who doesn’t work in tech, I mainly homelab as a way to learn about different technologies for fun. But I also like that I can invest in and control my own data, and don’t have to risk that my data will be inaccessible because a company goes under or changes their business model.