This is probably not a very helpful reply but I’ve always found NUCs rather pointless and hard to maintain, as you have found with a USB failure writing off the whole box. I run everything in my observatory off a small-form-factor, low-spec, Dell Optiplex 790 which has a mechanical hard disk. It has been sitting out in my damp observatory shed for years with no problem but I do have a stack of replacements in the garage with a disk image ready to go if it does fail. It has the advantage that you can pick them up cheap (£50 a pop from eBay) and they are easy to maintain (you can fit low-profile PCI cards for USB3 etc. and memory strips are dirt cheap). I run two cameras (an ASI6200 and an ASI293) off it plus the mount, scripting software and some other stuff. It is run headless since I do all my observing from inside and seems perfectly capable for image acquisition. It is on a UPS and is left on 24/7 but, when idle, consumes around 40W, so costs around 30p/day and this helps to keep nearby stuff in the shed reasonably dry. Maintenance consists of hoovering it out a couple of times a year to remove spiders and stuff.
British Astronomical Association
Supporting amateur astronomers since 1890