AT&T fiber ONTs don’t have a bridge mode, so adding a separate router would give double NAT
That being said, just use the ONT/router as the default gateway, and could use it for dns/dhcp or run your own instead. Can run all your own infrastructure and just disable services on the AT&T router that you want to run yourself. Disable WiFi and use your own access points, etc.
For accessing your services remotely, use a vpn like tailscale or zerotier, or set up cloudflare tunnels for publicly accessible services.
Fiber is better than copper, and the extra upload is absolutely worth it.
500+ Mbps is really good for WiFi, really anything over 300 Mbps is more than enough for phones/laptops doing normal tasks.
For comparison, a 4k Netflix stream uses 15Mbps, and a 10GB file would download in just over 4 minutes on 300 Mbps
For devices that need low latency and more bandwidth, wired is the way to go