Zerotier + sshfs is something I use consistently in similar situations to yours - and yes, zerotier is similar to a vpn. Using it for a constant network connection makes it less critical to have everything mirrored locally. . . But I guess this doesn’t solve your speed issue.

I"m not an expert in rclone. I use it for connecting to various cloud drives and have occasionally used it for an alternative to sshfs. I"ve used vfs-cache for cloud syncs but not quite in the manner you are trying. I do see there is a vfs cache read-ahead option that might he|p? Agreed on the documentation, sometimes their forum helps.

zerotier + rclone sftp/scp mount w/ vfs cache? I haven’t tried using vfs cache with anything other than a cloud mount but it may be worth looking at. rclone mounts work just as well as sshfs; zerotier eliminates network issues

I can’t find my notes on how I got this to work on Debian 11 but, if I recall correctly, I had to disable NetworkManager and setup networking directly via /etc/network/interfaces. I no longer have Debian running but at the time this worked for me:

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
# allow-hotplug eno1
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
    bridge_ports eno1

I’d add:

• ghostscript - with some basic perl scripts, works great for pdf flattening/compressing, merging, splitting, adding bookmarks etc.
• poppler - pdfseparate, sometimes pdfunite
• zathura - pdf viewing
• feh - images
• sshfs - prefer it to rclone
• cheat
• emacs - org-mode, latex, dired/wdired, capture, eshell, vterm, tramp
• mc/midnight commander