Thanks @tkaiser, your explanation couldn't be better.
SATA performance isn't an issue for me, but a good (and cheap) board with SATA (native or no) support is needed due to physical placement.
A20 and similar devices are widely available here in Brazil; other China-delivered devices take a really long time to arrive, and sometimes they even don't reach this tropical soil.
Since I discovered Armbian, never considered using another SO for development boards, and I will not even try searching for another. No Armbian, no board!
Again, thanks a lot for the explanation.