Plex + Tailscale = access it from “localhost” wherever you are. Just set up Tailscale serve to serve it in your tailnet.

Problem solved. Plex is free again

Except you still don't get hardware transcoding (or the mobile app... IIRC?), there are some workarounds, last I checked, but I suggest using Jellyfin instead.

Jellyfin works really well in my experience, but there are definitely some things Plex does better.