Works might be a stretch. Every time I hear someone complaining about Time Machine it turns out they are trying to do it over SMB.

Since macOS 26, it’s SMB only. Time Machine over AFP is no longer supported.

Yep. My household backs up to a Synology NAS via Time Machine: https://kb.synology.com/en-global/DSM/tutorial/How_to_back_u...

I’ve been using Time Machine with my synology nas for ~5 years. Works pretty well. I’d say once every 2 months it looses connection but seems to re-connect itself after a few minutes.

For like 15 years.