If it’s something you’re really worried about, maybe something like https://github.com/NHAS/wag will help along with your secure totp app.
After having tried what seems like every available desktop rss frontend, I just settled on the freshrss mapco theme with the landscape thumbnail and dark mode via dark reader instead of the built in option.
For the article loading issues, I’d recommend full-text-rss.
Troubleshooting can be difficult. I’ll only say you’ll save yourself alot of time and energy by establishing a baseline for power usage with just the essential components necessary for boot to see what you’re working with. Then you can make better informed decisions.
Monitor CPU usage and frequencies to ensure CPU is throttling down properly. Then start unplugging hard drives, ram, nic cable to see how they affect power usage. Servethehome shows an N305 idling around 10w in a minipc without HDDs.
Welcome to the rabbit hole of selfhosted note-taking apps. https://selfh.st/apps/?tag=Note-Taking
Unfortunately, this is going to be a bit of a journey. You’ll probably end up going through a few of these options until you find one that works for you and fits your workflow.