Long term archiving of images? DNG? Or maybe just JPG?

I started a thread on this a few years ago I think but I can’t locate it so I’ll start again. I’m also not certain if this is even the right forum. If it is not, please tell me where this should go.

I’ve been struggling with this for several years now and I’ve concluded that maybe the best option for archiving for me is to save all my images as JPG.

Let me explain. Initially I was happy about archiving Nikon Raw files (NEF) as DNG (Camera RAW). Anything I shot as JPG will remain in that format. I made my corrections, crop, and other adjustments so that the images look very close to what I would hope if someone other than myself were to open the file. I did all this in Bridge>Open in Camera RAW… then saved file(s) as DNG. I then deleted the NEF files. All fine so far.

I then found that if I open one of these saved DNG images in something other than Photoshop/Bridge i.e. Affinity, Apple Preview, Apple Photos etc., none of my changes are reflected in any of those programs. Not reading Adobe’s meta data/xml? Please try this and maybe you will see what I’m talking about, or else I’m an idiot and doing something wrong.

This is troubling and the only way around this is to open all those DNG images either in Bridge or Photoshop where they look as expected. That fine, however that means I would need to include some sort of “Read Me” (remember those?) about only opening in B or PS. At best I’m assuming someone would be able to use PS they would need to subscribe to the Adobe plan, and know how to use PS.

16 bit TIFf files are just too big, so I started thinking about saving everything out as the highest quality JPG which I know will look similar cross platforms, apps, browsers, etc. I know I’d lose my 16 bit info since JPG is 8 bit as well as the editing flexibility of DNG. But at least they LOOK close to what I’d want.

I also think that there is a greater chance of something being able to even open a JPG in 25, 50, 100? years from now.

I’m thinking long term when I’m gone. I just don’t want any of my images to look like the un-edited versions. Maybe I am thinking about this all wrong, but I thought that with the adjustments, crop, etc. that I do in CR would appear the way I intended using any photo editing app. I just don’t want to leave the guess work for correction up to anyone else. On the other hand maybe, no one will give a crap and never open any of my stuff.