It's been fun to watch you shift more into drums and sharing your learning experiences as you go.
This one section in your post took me back in time:
That meant packing it all up. I have not got proper drum bags yet, so I improvised with a holdall and a grocery bag. The bass drum had to go 'naked'. The hardware mostly went in a large wheeled suitcase.
Packing and unpacking gear of any sort is the only downside to events. For me it has been audio and video equipment, but I imagine your musical equipment would be the same. You tear down your studio set, pack it up, put it in the car, unpack it at you destination. set it up, do the event. Then tear everything down at the end of the event, pack the car (again), drive back home, unpack your gear into the house. Then sleep and eventually resetup your gear in the studio. For me that was usually a few days later. After many events I wound up creating a travel set that would allow me to not have to tear down my studio every time.
I don't play out too often, but on guitar tends to stay in its bag ready for the next one. I have set the drums up again at home. It doesn't take too long. With my previous setup I had to pinch various bits from my electronic kit and needed a checklist as I managed to forget some for rehearsals. Messing around with cables each time can be tricky.
I wouldn't want to be playing gigs every week, but a few each year would be fine.
I've bought the same cables or adapters more times than I care to count because I misplaced them between tear downs and setups. Occasionally, a duplicate cable or adapter pops up.
Well you need spares if doing gigs. I have ordered a pack of cymbal fixings as I am bound to lose some of those. There are small things that can mess you up if they go missing.