pico-balls VS documentation

You can output video (called DPI) from your gpio with the correct config settings. You would just need hsync, vsync, and 2 color bits (green for video, blue for intensity should give the best image, but feel free to play around with that). Next step it to use level converters, as hooking up TTL directly to the Pi will fry it. https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/develop/documentation/asciidoc/computers/raspberry-pi/display-parallel-interface.adoc

I heard a bunch of controversial things on Balena Etcher. Isn’t it better to recommend rufus, or just the default “restore volume from image” option windows had since like v8?

Sony's factory in Wales has been the biggest but not the only one, official Pis have been made in China, Japan and Taiwan too, can find out which manufacturer you got from the revision code, https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/develop/documentation/asciidoc/computers/raspberry-pi/revision-codes.adoc

You need to have various files needed for it's startup process on the first partition as described here - https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/develop/documentation/asciidoc/computers/configuration/boot_folder.adoc

So, the official documentation at https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/develop/documentation/asciidoc/computers/configuration/headless.adoc forgot a very important part: how to encode/hash the password under Windows? Not everybody has a second running Pi or linux-machine at hand.

You can do the initial setup headless if you wish and dispense with the keyboard etc. It's just a case of creating two files in /boot; an empty one called 'ssh' to enable the SSH server, and a wpa_supplicant.conf file to tell it how to connect to your Wi-Fi. The documentation explains the details.

The SOCs on raspberry pi have a DPI interface which can drive such display without a driver board; however as you said, you do need to have a datasheet for the specific LCD as you need to get the timing.