You can download playlists just fine. I’ll go on vacation all the time and listen offline the whole time.

And you dont need to run a server on each device. Plexamp and/or Symphonium are just apps for your phone. It’s all “local” when the laptop with the server/music and your phone are in your own house, especially navidrome. If you want to hit that server on the internet, thats a homelab project to dip your toes into when you feel like it.

Try out smart playlists. Plex, navidrome, etc. Let’s you set up a list that will only play songs you havent heard in months

Eh, dont agree. Yeah, I think listening to a whole album is important on occasion and can give a cool perspective. But I’ve found that the range of things I enjoy increases with shuffle. There’s so much stuff that I love… in unexpected short spurts. Im not talking hits, but just random decent stuff. I think there’s something lost when an album has to be good enough that you intentionally pull it off the shelf and listen to it for an hour. Hordes of cool things won’t meet that level.