I come in peace!
1) Demo 9.2.0.0, at this point, is like saying you installed 8.0 compared to 9.2.7.x. The changes between objects and core are that dramatic. For starters, there was no such thing as Orchestrator in 9.2.0.0, and don't get me started on 64 bit, simplified webdev, WLS versions rife with security holes, thousand of object changes in UN7.... it's a pretty stark difference. They added the Release 22/23 part for a reason (as wacky as it is.)
I haven't tried to get 9.2.0.0 demo to a newer tools, it just seems like it would be rough to upgrade (you'd need a lot of RAM as well and plenty of elbow grease.)
2) Windows 2022 certification should be out any minute now. Its been on a slide for like 4 months, but I will say they're working overtime on eliminating the Deployment Server and basically de-C-ing CNC (anyway read that platform statement of direction lately? Homogenous platforms!)
3) The benefit of an AWS system as sold allows you to play with the more pertinent tools customers are looking for. While the number of net news is down to like, unicorn status, there's still upgrades to R23/64 bit coming in. Even that seems finite, though (and I probably really...really...really...need a new career.) I digress - mostly everyone is looking to leverage Orch/Rest to integrate their systems, and how to boost the performance as such, and I can't stress this enough - this is a moving target issue. I may have been asked to get an orchestration with 37 components (2 UBE's and a flat file) down to under 20 seconds... and I just scatch my head. There's a very big gap in what people expect out of E1 and what the cost of that is, but genuinely... No Virginia, your half gig AIS instance pointed to your shared DV JAS server at 1024 can't support 50 orch calls per minute magically. Wow, I went on a tangent!
Yes, there's a cost with AWS, but having your own instance out there seems like the best bet to be up to date. I do not work for Autodeploy, mind you. Though if you have access to downloads, you can just probably set up your own AWS instance the same way with some beefy all in one 9.2.7.x box you can turn on and off.
Anyway, that's just my 2 cents... any effort to learn is a good one, but it does help to sort of try and wrap your head around whatever future is left.