Honestly 11 nights in a row of a flood light blazing through your kitchen window sounds annoying but maybe not the huge deal you're making it. Have you tried blackout curtains? A $30 pair would fix the dinner thing in one night. Talking to him about a motion sensor is fine, but going in assuming he'll split the cost is a stretch since it's his shed and his light. Pick your battles, this one has an easy workaround on your end.

Check your Google settings under "Location History" because that's usually what's doing it, not the Maps app itself. Turning off "Location Sharing" won't stop it, you have to kill the history part.

The part nobody talks about is power. Booting off a USB stick means your whole clone depends on that one box staying awake, and a brownout in the middle of a run will leave you guessing where it stopped. A dock at least keeps its own little power path separate from your OS. If you start doing these off a laptop, run it on battery or put it on a UPS, because ddrescue logs are worthless if the machine dies at hour five.