Metadata writing gets pretty intense, and sync writes generally get written out twice (once ephemerally to the ZIL, then permanently to main storage, then technically the deletion of the ephemeral copy in the ZIL is another write, although only a metadata write).
So yes, ZFS can actually produce more writes on the same workload as a conventional filesystem (although it typically gets through the workload faster, not slower, because those writes tend to be more efficient. Storage is complicated).
If this is a home nas, then why wouldn’t home quality ssd be appropriate?
They may be, or they may not be, depending on your workload and expectations. I’ve certainly used plenty of consumer SSDs with ZFS, and I frequently still do use consumer SSDs eg in desktops with ZFS. Even when that desktop runs a few VMs or what have you!
But that’s mostly because I frequently have a free or nearly free consumer SSD just lying around, even for the desktop use. If I have to buy something new, I go inexpensive enterprise pretty much every time, because they’re honestly a better deal IMO.
If I buy a Kingston DC600M, it’ll probably cost me about 20%-30% more than a similarly sized half-decent consumer SSD from a well known brand… But it will have double or in some cases four times larger write endurance, giving me full performance and reliability for as long as I care to use it, while the consumer SSD will be significantly slower within two to three years time, and utterly unbearable in six years.
Even without the performance benefits of, for example, hardware QoS on the enterprise gear to reduce latency, and even without any performance benefit when new due to higher throughput (which there frequently isn’t), and even without needing performance to sustain at high levels for long periods of heavy activity that would cripple the consumer gear… Even without any of that, I’d rather pay $390 for a drive that lasts me ten years at full performance, rather than $300 for a drive that’s at half speed before five years have elapsed.
Essentially, I think consumer SSDs are a sucker buy, in the same way that everything on the shelf at a Family Dollar is a sucker buy. The sticker price is certainly lower, yes, but it’s a very cynical worse value being pushed on you by a very cynical industry that understands the cuts it’s making much better than you do, and is perfectly willing to sell you the storage equivalent of a very pretty, moderately fast car with utterly terrible brakes if that’s how they can get a higher margin on more sales.
definitely when it’s enterprise grade storage.