Seafile + Samba + OpenVPN is my stack. I use Seafile for a dropbox style file sync on my devices, and Samba for direct access. OpenVPN for remote access on all devices. Works quite well.
I’d replace OpenVPN with WireGuard at this point - WireGuard is a lot faster and the client software is pretty good. All of my Apple devices are set up to use VPN 100% of the time automatically if I’m not on home WiFi.
When you install WireGuard client, there's "On Demand" option there that you can enable. That option has two additional settings - it can turn WireGuard only for a particular list of SSIDs, or it can _not_ turn it on for a particular list of SSIDs. So you just add the SSID of your home WiFi to the list for which WireGuard will not be turned on. On macOS client there is an identical option. This works really well.
