.local is mDNS - and I’m using that, saves me so much hassle with split-horizon issues etc.
I also use global DNS for local servers (AAAA records on my own domain), again, this eliminates split-horizon issues. Life is too short to deal with the hassle of running your own DNS server.
/r/Zerotier or /r/Tailscale
with the caveat that this entails installing a application on the client device that accesses the server & whitelist it - so workable if you’re accessing your server using your own phone/laptop, not so much on a random company PC or your friends.
If you want ‘random’ externals accessing your server, you’ll have to VPN out to a third party server that forwards ports, or host the entire thing in the cloud.
Tailscale/Zerotier yes. Other option is tunnel out to a 3rd party VPN server with port forwarding: cloudflare does that, and a number of others.
with iOS/iPadOS it’s as simple as downloading a DNS profile https://www.reddit.com/r/Adblock/comments/koowte/encrypted\_dns\_profiles\_for\_ios\_14/
Because hosting commercially with large (multi-TB) storage gets very expensive very quickly