I always recommend windows to people who want a home server that's easy to maintain. Homelabbing is more about learning and trying new things out.

A nuc with a nice size external can do a lot and they come with windows not to mention it can run fine free. A lot of the services people run are all using mono to run the windows app. Anyone who has used Windows can install an exe but not anyone is willing to use command line in Linux.

Home server and self hosted are more focused on what you're looking for.