This is the way. Exactly what I’m doing for my old iPad mini that can’t get any of the new streaming apps. I download some videos and upload them to the iPad with VLC’s web interface. Super easy and then they’re always available, internet or no.
If you have relevant containers (e.g. the *arr stack) then you can bring all of them up with a single docker compose command (or pull fresh versions etc.). If everything is in a single file then you have to manually pull/start/stop each container or else you have to do it to everything at once.
I’ll second PurelyMail. Easy to set up and they have explainers for all the various settings. I pay $10 a year for “unlimited” domains and mailboxes (some caveats but for minimal mail we won’t hit any limits).