I've home educated for over 10 years now. I'm trying to be a kind voice of experience but, like others, there are some concerns. Maybe a bit of a reality check can help you readjust your plans.
Don't home educate if you expect it to be easier than sending them to school or to be cheap or the groups or someone else will take on most or even make a dent in the work. Every home educator I know - from the most unschooler types to the uber-structured classical educator types - has incredibly stressful days where we've considered schools. Even the unschoolers I know who are trying to provide resources for their kids as well as structured people like me get lesson planning and teaching fatigue. I don't think it's anything like teachers get, but being the parent and the teacher is hard. I'll admit I've had days where I've ended up in tears and I know more than a few home educators whove told me the same. Many kids - especially as they get older - find it hard to take the kind of criticism it takes to improve work from their parents.
Outsourcing any of it tends to be expensive. Each home educator I know has had to shuffle funds to try to get a resource or programme for their kid - the unschoolers I know spend a lot more on trips and activities compared to me who spends quite a bit on curriculums. Just the main maths programme I use for Y1-Y6 - is currently ~£140, not including manipulates or measuring tools and lesson plans if needed are separate. I got it on sale and as it's a PDF I can reuse across all kids which makes it more affordable for us but you have to then add up the costs for other subjects. I know people who spend way more and those I know who spend a lot less design their own which is an entirely different level of stress. Open-and-go curriculums are popular with home educators for a reason - they're less stress and tend to actually get done more. The best curriculum is the one that gets done, not the fun plan that doesn't.
Every home education groups has been like herding cats - they're there, can be great fun and loving environments, but not the most reliable - and I would never plan on them to be the main part of either my kids' education plan or for socializing. The groups are good for meeting people and occasional interesting experiences but the long-term friendships all rely on meeting up in people's homes regularly rather than the group. Play dates seem to be a home ed essential well after typical school play date age.
The fun of the holidays is not the same as doing lessons with your kids day in, day out. You'd be the school and not the holiday camp. Please do not home educate if you're going into thinking it's going to be like holiday educational activities because when you sit down trying to work on whatever subject your kid struggles with most - tends to be writing and/or maths that causes the most stress among those I know - home educators need to be able to put the fun part aside and make sure work gets done or kids will be left behind just as if they did nothing but education fun activities at school. It will be even harder if you plan to continue and home educate for KS3.
There are a lot fewer home educated kids the older they get. Once they hit the secondary age and even fewer once they become teenagers. A few do come out of school during those years but not enough stay home educated long or go to open mixed age groups. The amount of home educated kids my son started with was in the dozens. That has dwindled down to about 3 I know in our area, including him and he's chosen to move onto a school next year for Y10 for GCSEs and engineering. I was a recent home education event with plenty of primary age kids, about 5 Y7-age kids, and 1 kid who was GCSE age.
As to the idea that it being legal means it's as good as schools - well - there are good schools and bad schools, there are good home education situations and bad home education situations. Home educating by itself doesn't make it good, it takes a lot of effort just like teaching vs good teaching that helps people learn. Don't home educate if you think educating at home means it will be good.
There are many reasons to home educate but only do it if you can move from fun part to the full part. Pretty much any HE group has people who love to talk about how free and less stressful and better home educating is and it's those same people who make a panicky scramble requesting resources and tutors. Happens all the time, it's really stressful for those parents and those kids, and as home educating parents, I think it's a duty to try to ensure that that isn't us and ours. Only you can make the choice, but there is lot more to consider than the commute issues.