My media library is simply a directory on my Linux NAS, exported over NFS. No VPS, no Plex, no Jellyfin no Jellyfish, no Jelly donut, just NFS. If I want to listen to a song or play a movie, I just navigate to that directory and play it. Simplest system I could come up with.
Alas my work will not allow me to mount a random NFS share but I take your point, simplicity is a virtue.
That’s fine, but with something like Jellyfin you get multi-platform apps (including tvOS and android tv etc), tracking of progress within a movie or tv series, play next etc.