Worst kind of commenter. I bet when people ask for advice on buying sneakers you list 5 pair of sandals, and bait to start an argument against wearing shoes…
Anyway OP I also just looked on my iPhone and get the same results as the top poster for widgets. Does indeed look like they changed it at some point. I am also sure I had one with buttons for lights on both the phone and watch.
I got myself a synology about 8 years ago for the same reasons you listed up. NAS storage local and out, while being able to run a few small services like Plex for streaming media (looking to try Jellyfin at some point).
There is a premium cost for the NAS but att I didn’t want to fiddle around building my own and then setting up something like Unraid, which atm is running on and old laptop and might be my pick for my NAS solution in a few years.