Nice! Will definitely use your repo as a reference. How did the IPFS strategy work out for you? And, why the move to a NoSQL architecture? Just to scale up?
React Native was my entry to mobile (coming from a React background), but I've been planning on using Dart and Flutter for the project I had in mind.
For IPFS, I took a pinning service called Pinata. It has an easy set up, accept crypto payment, and they make sure your images remain available. I like the fact that if I grow I can run a server to pin my own content. I had little traffic so I haven't used the service much to be honest.
As for the database, it is to help improve the home page loading performance. I display content with a cover which is in the first blog post of a series. Instead of digging for it in the blockchain I 'd rather save a few key information in a json object and pull it out quickly. I still have to work on image optimization but loading speed has improved since last year.
I have a few other things that will need a database but I use it more as a cache than a proper data storage.