I don't think you get what FTP is and isn't. FTP and the actually secure flavors of it are just the protocol used to move the files back and forth. Nextcloud, Google Cloud, DropBox, etc do a lot of other things on top of the protocol they use to move files. If you can find an FTP client that does all of the version control, conflict resolution, automation, etc that you get from Nextcloud and others then by all means use it if you want. But there is a reason that is almost non-existent while NextCloud and other programs actually do that stuff.
I actually used to use SFTP to move files back and forth between my laptop and desktop back in the day. Other and better tools have taken the place of it.
Another vote for Technitium DNS. I used PiHole then Adguard Home and Technitium is much better for me. I actually run two of them so I never have more than one down outside of power outages. One on my Pi and one on my server that runs my Docker containers for my other services.