A year ago, they tried to make it so that you couldn't create a new RAID volume unless it used only first-person drives.[0] Then they walked that back to allow you to use normal Seagate and WD, etc., drvies.[1] It seems they've reverted locking new features to their own hardware.
After that first move, I swore I was done buying Synology hardware. After they relaxed, I was willing to consider that they'd learned from customer feedback and abandoned this scheme. Now? This is the future they're racing toward and I want no part of it.
I'm not sure which direction to go, as I don't want my NAS to turn into a sys admin hobby.
But now? Since their first attempt to lock users into buying their insane first-party drives[0] I've started migrating all my workload off the NAS and onto separate servers. It's very close to being just "dumb storage" now. I refuse to use any of their cool proprietary products because I want to avoid this lock-in.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Synology-HAT5320-Enterprise-Internal-... is $1300 (but only 12 in stock), vs a Seagate https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-Enterprise-Internal-... for $860. And what happens when you have to replace a drive? I can drive over to Central Computers right now and have a new WD installed an hour later. I have no idea where I'd source a Synology drive on short notice in an emergency.