Who else uses Unraid, but not as a NAS?

I was recently given crap for “doing it wrong” since I use Unraid as my home server OS while keeping all my files on my old Synology NAS, just mounting NFS shares to link to media files.

I just like the UI and the community. It’s just simpler and more user friendly IMO. I didn’t feel like building a whole new NAS, but I wanted to use it as the front end for all my self-hosting applications and home server needs. The more frugal may scoff at buying it to not even use for a NAS, but it’s cheaper than building a new one.

I think it’s silly to suggest it defeats the purpose of using Unraid. That’s like saying it defeats the purpose of a Mac to not do content creation, or it defeats the purpose of Steam Deck to not play games. If they can find a niche that wasn’t their target audience, due to their attention to detail for usability, then I would consider that a win.

Does anyone else use Unraid like this? Does anyone use it in other unconventional ways?