To be fair most Gripen crashes happened in the early days, as a result of purposefully pushing the plane and pilot to their limits. Flying low enough to scrape treetops, sudden high-G manouvers… they train like they’re in an actual war.
The best thing to do is just start with whatever you already have. An old gaming rig, laptop or Raspberry Pi, doesn’t matter. Each will present some technical obstacle that you need to overcome (for example keeping the laptop going when the lid is closed). That’s part of learning.
Self-hosting is a hobby where we gradually learn more. Experimentation is just as important as reading the docs.
Likely there will be no such thing as a 6th gen fighter jet. The pilot will be replaced by AI, so the next gen will have completely different requirements.