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I still think tiling is ultimately the feature you’re looking for, even if it’s on a floating DE. Most tiling WMs (Sway included) have the ability to float windows, and can even do so by default while still giving you the keyboard-based workflow that you’re after.
Tiling isn’t an all or nothing thing, Plasma for example is a floating DE that is capable of tiling in exactly the way you’re describing by default
What port do you have SSH set to? What ports did you change the services to? Is the SSH port open?