Right now my TrueNAS is virtualized and I truly hate it. It’s been a constant issue for me.

That said, I can’t afford separate hardware atm. I will be able to soon, but not quite yet lol

I don’t think this would solve your particular use case. However, SSHFS is absolutely amazing for remote smb share access.

I used it on my laptop to access my home NAS for years.

You definitely can. Idk why the commentor above you thinks its local only?

I have two severs I swap between exactly like you describe.