The primary reason to virtualize is to maximize the “bang for your buck” on your hardware. Containers are great, but have their limits.
So long as you have a desire to learn it (and the budget), I say dive in with Proxmox and see how you can put that hardware to use. VMWare ESXi is more common in a business/enterprise setting, but costs money to for anything beyond the basic functionality after the evaluation period.
The primary reason to virtualize is to maximize the “bang for your buck” on your hardware. Containers are great, but have their limits.
So long as you have a desire to learn it (and the budget), I say dive in with Proxmox and see how you can put that hardware to use. VMWare ESXi is more common in a business/enterprise setting, but costs money to for anything beyond the basic functionality after the evaluation period.