I recently did this on my desktop, and followed the instructions on the wiki

I used the rsync method and worked well for me.

Same here, async errors happening frequently ☹️

+1 for Arch for desktop setups. If setup well, I have not really encountered my desktop system breaking, and if broken, usually can fix since it teaches you how to set up when you install the first time. Also, great documentation and forums.

You can search for communities, and in the list you will get communities on other instances.