I have one behind my TV that controls LED lights, although that may count as electronics. I’ve used PIs many times for when I just need a cheap computer doing computery things such as playing audio from spotify out of a speaker. They’re small enough to fit pretty much anywhere with the help of some velcro.

A VPN you could use on your phone, computer, laptop, tablet, TV, Samsung SmartFridge, etc. I’ll admit it’s a bit more involved than ssh -L ... but it’s well worth it. Especially if you’re the only one using it. After setting up Wireguard I’ve elimated all my router port forwards except SSH and WG

Why not use a proper VPN instead of SSH tunnels?