I thank you all for your feedback.
I realise that I lack experience and that a moderately bigger case would be a more practical (and economical) solution to ease my way into modular synthesis. I definitely need to do more research on utilities and trying them in person. That said, I don't agree on the idea of compromise.
I see compromise as the reason why I'm getting into modular instead of what I'm trying to avoid. I don't have much experience with synthesis as I have with guitar pedalboards, but I think that assembling one works in a similar fashion. I don't see myself expanding into a bigger system because modular for me is just a part of my setup that I would like to keep compact and simple to use (alongside other gear ).
Just like having too many pedals is (for me) a big bother and gets in the way of actually playing I would like to squeeze as much as I need in a smaller footprint. (With a specific goal in mind).
I guess the fun part of modular for me is finding a good compromise rather than embarking on an endless quest. Does this make sense? The more I look at bigger systems (say 176hp) and the more I think it wouldn't be something I'd like to use.