Yea no I'd never recommend Authentik for its simplicity. In fact I'd say it's pretty complicated to set up and a lot harder to learn how to use.

It does indeed need an external database, and likes to run in a kubernetes cluster...

I mostly set it up to learn about SSO, but by now it's hooked into everything I could hook it up with.

Definitely not worth the effort in any normal homelab scenario, apart from needing some cool points