Are you referring to the post containing a Poorly Drawn Lines comic?
If so, heresy!!
I like their comics. They are simple in style and taste. I can see that may be perceived as low quality by some.
But in relation to the topic of this post, their comic strips are certainly not AI-generated.
For your mentioned use cases, any distribution would do.
In fact, any answer for your question would be anecdotal, and here’s mine: Debian if this isn’t your first rodeo, and Ubuntu Server if it is.
Heck, just play around with Ubuntu Server and then go to Debian.
Moreover, you may ask this question on !selfhosted@lemmy.world for better insights.