Heads up: I don’t have a PhD.
Afaik, publishing the metrics you’ve listed would probably count towards a survey paper or as part of a paper where existing state is described. Getting a PhD with just a survey paper isn’t something I’ve heard of. To publish a paper at a PhD level, you’ll have to either contribute an improvement over an existing state or come up with a breakthrough idea (with metrics to back it up of course).
It would help readers get a better grip of your ask if the problem statement is clearly stated.
Based on your questions, this should help:
I don’t think proxmox is free. Try docker / kind (k8s).