You can still keep them local and use a VPN. That's what I do.

Its still on the internet though. Its just the VPN becomes the security barrier. Although if you keep it up to date, its going to be safer than iot crap

People really should. It's pretty easy these days with wireguard or tailscale. Just plug a raspberry pi somewhere with network and power and you're set.

I spend my day doing the "tech shit" for work. I don't want to mess with stuff, I just want it to work. I'm willing to risk a bit of security for it to "just work", which it has now for multiple years. Without any security issues (so far).

I completely agree, even though I do tinker around with stuff for fun. However in my experience so far wireguard and tailscale (which is based on wireguard) are the kind of solutions that just work with little to no oversight.