

As an apples to oranges comparison, here’s a fun datapoint.
I just rented a BMW 5 series for a week, for a grand total of ~$300. That’s a good deal, sure, but some very rough napkin math tells me a $60,000 car / $300 / week = 200 weeks of rental should pay for the cost of the vehicle (ignoring maintenance for now). So, let’s say it’s a $5k bike (implausible), that should really only be $25/week, or generously $4/day. The fact even the cheaper option mentioned is 6x this is terrible - bikes really shouldn’t be this expensive.
I wish bikes were more cost effective :(.
Edit: I wish bike rental services were more cost effective/sustainable :(

Yes
Yes, twice (download from home to the server, and upload from the server to the client)
I do the same thing - I have a 3TB limit, but usually only use 300GB, sharing Jellyfin to a dozen or so users.
Edit: I’m sure there are plenty of good VPS providers out there, I personally have been using NerdRack for a few years now (got a VPS on special and the rate is locked as long as I keep it). Looks like they’ll do $11/year right now for a KVM VPS that’s sufficient.