I don’t think you have the ability to change these manually but if you hold an option you can click suggest less. There’s a way to disable it and it’s in this article: https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-enable-or-disable-contact-suggestions-in-iphone-share-sheet/

The watch is an accessory that is used in place of the phone for tasks such as checking the time, asking Siri a quick thing, tracking workouts, reading notifications, etc all without taking the heavy phone out of the pocket and taking much focus. If you keep it for 3 years how much will it cost per month? It’s a value add that’s simply an extension of your phone

Can you clarify what you want to access from outside your lan? Is it just the guacamole server?

I’d say go 15, USB C for everything is nice and it’s not much more expensive, keep it working for many years and get your peripherals over time as necessary. No clue if there’s a Black Friday sale though, ask your closest store employee