I got the 10Gbe option. I’m adding a similar port (found on eBay for $30) on my beefed up HP Microserver Gen8 NAS and configuring it as an iSCSI target.
With iSCSI the mini sees the remote volume as direct attached storage and I can then deploy both my Lightroom catalog and pictures on the server and connecting to it at USB3.1 equivalent speeds.
Can you explain what it means to configure as an “iSCSI target”? I have experience setting up SMB shares between an always-on Mac mini and a MBP. What you describe sounds better/ as-if DAS.