Hello Forum!

I joined to ask a question but after reading down the forum a little ways I may have more to ask. Sounds like there's a lot of knowledge here. Glad I found y'all.

Ok so I am not new to midi having used if for around 20 years but never deeply. I have used it for basic connectivity between a daw and synth or one synth to another. This will be changing soon as I'm organizing my mess into a functional workstation. I will be connection more than one thing at a time like I had for years and want to find the right (or right kind of) interface for my small set up.

Right now I have a Scarlett 2i2(gen1) for audio and have owned a M-Audio UNO since they came out around two decades ago. It worked for what I needed up until last year in the spring when I was testing out a new Neutron. I recently pulled it out to find that Windows 10 wasn't recognizing it. I did all the things to troubleshoot and ended up with win10 seeing the unit and driver in device manager but nothing I do will get any program to see the UNO/driver. MidiOX, Floops, MidiRecorder were the programs I tried and no UNO. My only other midi interface, a Korg SQ64, was recognized and worked as it should. It wold be nice to get that worked out since the UNO has always been such a useful and quick to use tool. If anyone can help with that I would be grateful.

But that's not why I'm here. It did trigger why though.

Having lost use of the UNO I came to the awareness that I will need more than that to integrate what I want to set up and have fluid workflow. I plan on always having at my workstation the following midi connected gear: Yamaha RM1x, Zoom RT234, Roland SP404(gen1), microKorg, Korg Prophecy, Korg SQ64(maybe), Arturia Keystep37, Behringer Neutron. I might also integrate my Eurorack at some point but that's why I bought Keystep for now, and I would like to have a port laying out on the table to plug into easily for random black boxes. The tabletop port I am considering is a SixyFourPixels Banana Split. What I would like recommendations for is the interface between my laptop with win10 (but might be win11 when they force me into the upgrade I'm avoiding). It has three 3.0 USB-A ports and one USB-C. I don't really want to add any more USB as I really only have one USBc port that's not used. Mouse and Scarlett in two USBa and external drive in USBc. And I'd like to keep that other USBa open cuz I'm always using it so that's why I'm considering an audio-midi interface to replace the Scarlett.

I have a very limited income but I might spend more than comfortable if the right gear is out of my budget. I figure I will need 6 or more dedicated midi ports and one that will link to the BananaSplit.

SO....
Should I get something like a Scarlett 4i4 or Presonus 24C and get a midi splitter/thru-box? I feel like I need a new audio interface and monitors; though what I have now works ok.
OR
Should I get a USB connected rack unit like a MOTU (or less expensive hopefully) that will have to be patched through a USB hub which could cause problems down the road? I'm building a small rack case for the Furman power conditioner so will have rack space available.

If you have something in mind could you share the pros and cons please?

Right now I'm leaning towards a Scarlett 4i4 since I use a Scarlett already. Then adding the cheapest rack mountable midi splitter I can find. And the Banana Split on the desktop.

Looking forward to any feedback
THETA