Yeah the only cert I've ever held was LPIC-1 and it wasn't really necessary for me to get to where I am in my career. At this point the practical experience vastly outweighs theoretical school type knowledge.
Practical cert courses have had way more of a tangible impact in my day to day when I do the course (but not the exam)
+1 on tailscale. I used to push it through cloudflare but with tailscale has been much simpler and doesn't run afoul of cloudflare's TOS