Bought a 2nd-hand Kobo Aura. Was it a mistake, or can it be liberated to run Linux?

I haven’t tried to connect to it yet. But I see that there is a “Kobo Desktop” which is the official way to manage the Kobo. But that app is not linux and hacks to make it work on linux are apparently gone?

But then I find this thread saying that it simply attaches as a mass storage device. I’m glad to hear I can expect that to work. So is there any reason to want to get the Kobo Desktop working, which I assume would entail emulating Windows?

Some Kobos can be liberated to run PostmarketOS, but looks scary for the Aura, which apparently does not even boot.

In cases where a Kobo can be liberated, someone mentions that you have a choice between staying with the vendor kernal or switching to the mainline. But you lose the ability to run some of the vendor apps if you go mainline. So I wonder what it means in the end to liberate it but to keep the vendor’s kernel.

Has anyone fiddled with liberating the Kobo Aura, w/PostmarketOS or others?