Very fun to read but may be too advanced to start with... is there a particular reason why I couldn't or should't run this on a regular core i7 7700k powered machine?
Power consumption is the biggest thing. For an always-on home server, you want something that sips as little power as possible. (Some of the Intel Avoton CPUs have a 17W TDP, compared to an i7 which can have a TDP anywhere between 65-150W.)
Outside that, the only other issue is going to be lack of ECC RAM. Whether that's needed for a home server is debatable. Many folks can get by fine without it.
Oh, and lack of lights-out management utilities. Which is convenient, especially in headless setups... but hardly required when the server is a few feet away.