I’m running a normal linux distro, with everything running in containers using docker compose files. No VMs, since they are overkill for my needs. I’m running stuff like the *arr stack, home assistant, smokeping, unifi controller, pihole etc. Setting it up is quite simple, and the distro can be whatever you prefer (I use Arch btw).
What do you need to pass trough? I’ve done usb passthrough in the past with docker as well