VM vs bare metal?

I am beginner, so please be patient. I got a dell optiplex 9020 with an Intel Core i7-4790 for an absolute bargain and want to turn it into a Hackintosh! I mainly want it as an imessage server so I stop getting excluded from group chats. I am weighing the pros and cons of using unRAID to run macOS. My primary motivation for the VM approach is the ability to run pfSense and other programs getting more utility from the machine, and my primary worry is getting imessage to work. I have little use for a mac other than as an imessage server so I'm worried trying to run in a VM may defeat the purpose for me. Any advice is appreciated.

Edit: clarity

submitted by /u/2000gatekeeper
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