Would scrobbling to e.g. ListenBrainz (or last fm) be an option for you for discovery?

Not trying to convince you in particular of anything, but for anyone who may be interested in switching to a different podcast app, I’d recommend trying Antennapod.

Re: Transferring, I bought a 1TB sd-card for my phone and use Syncthing to transfer music from desktop to phone.

I’ve considered this as well, as I already back my data up regularly. However, I read online that external disks aren’t good for long-term access. Have you run into any issues with that?