Let’s remember that Cloudflare is engaged in business with USG, so if they were doing that kind of nefarious stuff, it’d result in a bad time for a whole lot of folks.

they don’t give a rats ass about any potential intellectual property theft. That risk has been written off

That's not true. It's a mitigated risk through contract.

When I interview entry-level IT operations candidates, discussion of home labs puts the candidate at the top of the list, all other things being equal. It's hands-on experience and demonstrates an interest in tinkering... and will show that the candidate knows how to solve problems (including how to Google problems).

Only once has that strategy failed me, and it wasn't even a terrible fit - just a bad one.