Backblaze posts stats regularly on their site, for example:

• https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-2023/
• https://www.backblaze.com/blog/ssd-edition-2023-mid-year-drive-stats-review/

Not Gandi. They were very reliable since the beginning of the internet but they sold the company and went downhill since.

https://lowendbox.com/ is usually recommended for cheap VPS.

I confirm that VPS companies use custom images with additional scripts. I’ve seen those a few times.

Avoid smart TVs, prefer large screen. IIRC the LG brand was less bad than the others. Samsung is the worst since they put ads on top of your own videos. Anyway, never plug it to the internet, never put the wifi password.