For me it was a matter of wanting basic network backup and storage as well as DVR/storage for a couple of IP security cams I have around the house. I know I co

For me it was a matter of wanting basic network backup and storage as well as DVR/storage for a couple of IP security cams I have around the house. I know I could have set up something from scratch but instead I just went with the Synology for ease of setup, relatively affordable price (didn't have enough of the right parts laying around for a franken-build), and as you say, less burden of maintenance. I wouldn't necessarily want to depend on it for something "mission critical" but it's a convenient solution along with online backup for media storage and security cam management. My only regret is not buying one with a more powerful processor since this one isn't really capable of transcoding media. Instead, I have all of my home media backed up to the Synology and run a Plex server on my primary desktop. The Plex server reads the media from the NAS and can then send to Chromecast or be accessed from Plex or Kodi running on my Android TV.