For me it depends on the hw on site; if it is properly setup and in an adequate environment i have no issue anywhere.

(me too i did #2 at home…)

Proxmox is a virtualization solution: let it do its job and run a vm with opnsense.

It is simple both from a virtualization and a networking perspective; your hypervisor is ‘hypervisoring’ and the firewall is firewalling, easier to maintain and debug, no custom thinkering required.

If you are at home go with #1, more fun and lots of discoveries; if you have to pay the bills, go with #2, tested, solid, easier to handoff to your colleagues.

IMHO you should look/ask for such a feature in a google group because big g may have a business case for such a feature: it would pull back in those users who try to escape.

and that should not be an immich feature but a google one.

as a self-hoster I prefer to have control on my data; a solution to feed my data to google through a third party (that may do whatever it wants while performing the transfer) is the exact opposite of what i’m trying to achieve and would have little to no value for me.