Having your files safe somewhere on the network doesn't help much if a completely blank machine can't even see the network yet. Getting a dead computer back to the point where it can talk to anything needs to solve a hardware recognition problem before the operating system exists to solve it. Early NAS handled this surprisingly well, and understanding how they did it makes it easier to appreciate why modern tools, for all their efficiency, usually can't fully replace what those older systems got right.

A NAS is a great way to host a few services and back up your files, but you shouldn't rely on one device to protect you against file loss. I have two separate NASes on my network that do two very different things: One serves as a daily driver, the other is "cold storage" that only receives periodic backups.