Hardware

Have you considered a NAS device instead of a USB attached device? Synology has some really nice bulletproof devices you can put next to your network switch and forget about. It makes it easier to upgrade over time, and incorporate things like tail scale and automatic backups to off-site locations

Storage devices, both spinning disks, and SSDs, are consumables. Ideally you have a solution that allows you to swap out the devices as you consume them.

Looking at ssd for speed and longevity, eh? Go to ebay or whatever secondhand marketplace you prefer and shop the used enterprise u.2 and grab a m.2 to u.2 adapter while you're out. You will not find a better value for your dollar if endurance is an objective. Datacenter grade storage is more expensive but that's because the endurance is rated in drive writes per day instead of terabytes written. For example,you can roughly expect prices to be 10x higher while endurance will be 50x higher when comparing enterprise ssds to consumer.