Good point. The gTLDs I listed are typically cheaper than .com registrations when I look on namecheap, but the governance of the original TLDs is definitely more regulated, except for that damn .org hijack attempt :(

However, if I want to have {my last name}.tld, is there any gTLD that would be unlikely to jack up the price? I actually have {my last name}.casa for this reason.

Unfortunately {my last name}.{com,org,net} were all registered when I was in diapers. I'm assuming that the land of gTLDs is the wild west of potential price shenanigans, but I'm wondering if I'm wrong.

A .com will cost < $100 for 10 years at most registrars and as you've noted, this is for personal use (not company branding, e.g.) so the name is not that important. I'll posit that most folks know how bad the name squatting business is around the internet and nobody really thinks hard about somethingreallyobscure.com so long as it's not confrontational in some way (religion, politics, swearing, etc.). But I will say "anything ending in .com has more implicit trust" - I'm always mentally questioning if any link from one of the new gTLDs is just a spammer/ne'er do well.

Been here, done what you're doing, there's a .com out there with a fun and interesting name which somehow resonates with your personality. Think long term - avoid trademark/copyright branded words in the name, avoid being too narrow in case your hobby changes, easy to type and spend some time really thinking about plurality - I've discarded a lot of ideas simply because it would lead to other people going "was that with or without an (s) on the end?" - same with double-letters in the middle, just avoid them. I try and focus on 5-6 syllables max which break on natural language barriers (English).