

This feels like a First Follower problem.
He’s clearly on the right track, but the first steps have a lot of inertia holding them back. Also, is hard to act as a community when we’re looking for those first few leaders to do something on their own that we as individuals can get behind.
We need some frameworks for action. I don’t think we know what that looks like yet.
Look into Single Sign-On services (SSO) like Authelia, Authentik, or KeyCloak. Most SSO tools do the sorts of things you’re looking for. Some will talk to the native UNIX user store. I do agree with the others, though: if you’re this far along, then it’s time to spin up LDAP and SSO, but this might be the same tool in your case.
Check out FreshRSS. You can self host, so if you have a home server, this will do the trick. Use your favorite reader app that can connect to it.
I get the subscription fatigue. I’m currently paying for Inoreader because I haven’t fully cut over to FreshRSS. It has good tools that are worth it for many, but all those subscriptions add up fast.
Synology has the best systems of their kind. I’d go with them for pre-made solutions. Their UI is simple enough for most folks to understand.
Backups. Backups. Backups. Focus on what you can reliably do. If you can’t make a service bulletproof, then maybe it’s not ready for everyday use.
Keep good notes. Notes tell both what you did and why you did it. Keep track of what problem you’re solving or what goal you’re working toward. All of this will help when you do look for a new IT provider. Use your notes to help the business define requirements for them.
This is one possible future for “good” AI.