Background: 15 years of experience in software and apparently spoiled because it was already set up correctly.
Been practicing doing my own servers, published a test site and 24 hours later, root was compromised.
Rolled back to the backup before I made it public and now I have a security checklist.
There's no difference to the work I need to do to secure an open SSHd vs an open WireGuard server. None.
Yes I harden, and penetrate, systems for a living. If your systems need remote access there is no standard (neither in fintech or military) that classifies SSHd as being "worse" than a VPN.