For what it's worth, I've been using my Hackintosh on the same hardware since 2011. It'll be 6 years in March. Just upgraded to Sierra 10.12.3 this morning, in fact.

On top of that, I've actually had to spend far less time computer janitoring it than I have on the various *NIX installs I've run in those same 6 years.

I totally understand not wanting any OS-based surprises while trying to get work done, but as long as your CPU and motherboard are supported, you're generally good to go.