I don't think that's the point the commenter was making. The analogous situation would be if someone posted that they made their kitchen table from scratch, and the commenter said that it's great but not everyone has a lathe in their basement, so good that places like Ikea exist as well.

bruh nobody's looking down on people running they're own metal

Server hardware is fun but it's not trivial to manage, buy or run.

So when someone talks about how they've managed servers for 2 decades, own a house where they can install a 42 rack and how much better it is than a hosted solution. A lot of people rightly point out that this is hardly feasible for most people

I started self hosting when I was 12 with whatever last gen hardware at goodwill no one wanted.

People don't need a 42U rack to put a server in their closet though. You buy some surplus server on ebay and throw it on a shelf, no big deal.

It's really not that easy. There's a lot of considerations to make. Which rack size, model you want. Finding someone who will ship that brick to you. Not trivial

Well it is, to get started. If your needs are "mild to moderate", you can buy a brand new intel NUC or a mac mini for <$500 if space is a priority, or go on ebay and buy a beater laptop (I found 5 advertised for <$100 within a minute of searching).

Yes it's trivial. Just go on ebay and buy something. Finding someone? Literally ebay.com. Found.

Also I said _not_ buy a rack, just put it on a shelf.

Got an old laptop laying around?

Not sure why you would need heaps of servers these days given everything is x86 and VM tech is robust and free