Seriously. I hate when people assume default settings are the only option. You don’t even need a Plex account to set up Plex. It will just be less seamless and user friendly. Never adopt the server, configure these via localhost (ssh tunnel works) and then set up your networking. Don’t even need to update it, it will run for as long as the database stays stable. Which should be years or more. 
For sure the quality will be worse than software but typically if I’m away from home I’m watching on an ipad and then you really can’t tell the difference.
EDIT: I meant QSV Gen 7, which would be intel Gen 11. Kaby Lake and up can still handle HEVC in hardware but they have to use software as well for 4K.
worth mentioning that any intel cpu with an iGPU from generation 7 (kaby lake) and up can handle 4k hevc transcode in hardware. i just upgraded my plex box to an i7 8700K and it works quite well. an old office workstation with like a 9th or 11th gen intel cpu would probably rip through transcodes.
i’m not sure why it would do this, i’ve never had any issues with watching plex while the internet is down (in fact that was one of my original uses for it, to have movies and tv in a building without internet). I don’t have it turned on but I do know you can go into server settings -> network and set a list of IPs/subnets that can access without any authorization at all. That lets you use plex without even having a plex account afaik.
As a techie I hate this answer but it’s hard to beat a Roku with Plex from an ease of use standpoint. My 70+ year old parents have no problem navigating it.
I’m pretty sure that’s corporate speak for “we need to drive plex pass subscriptions more so we need to lock more feature behind it.”
Even serving 7.5 million people per day that leaves 330-some million people every day who don’t eat tacos. Assuming every customer ate a taco with their meal, ~2,200 out of every 100,000 people eats at least one taco each day, so ~2.2%. This doesn’t account for people eating multiple tacos, however.
I was unironically told that I should “keep a lower profile” if I want to avoid being bullied. I spoke to nobody and hugged the walls walking from class to class. I don’t know how much lower of a profile I could keep.