A couple things.

Generally, I agree that an expert wheelbuilder is best. However at the LBS, they typically will not spend sufficient time to get an absolutely perfect truing job, they're on the clock. Once you get the hang of it, yes, it'll still take longer than the pro, but spending as much time as it takes to get it perfect, gets it perfect, and that, typically, can be superior to the "pro" job.

I don't have a spoke tension meter. That would be a help for knowing the correct tension. But for equalizing all the spokes on a side, I just ring'em, pluck like a string.

What's tricky for a non-pro is stress-relieving the spokes. This involves stressing the spoke just beyond its yield point, then releasing, so that under normal operation, the stress is less. The relieving is happening mostly at the J-bend I think. This can be done by grabbing a couple parallel spokes and squeezing together laterally, thick leather gloves helps. I seen described that some folks put the rim flat on the ground and walk on the spokes, I think that may have been in Jobst Brandt's book The Bicycle Wheel but my memory could be off. I have a copy deep in storage. I think factory wheels do not have the spokes stress relieved. I myself have not stress relieved any spokes, I would if I sensed it critical, but ever since doing a careful truing and tension equalization on all wheels new to me, I've yet to break a spoke. Early in the life of my current bike, I pulled off the spoke protector disc like always in the past, only the original rear derailleur was junk and allowed the chain to derail into the spokes and tore up a couple, all of which eventually failed in fatigue there. I put the protector disc back on, replaced the RD, and plan to put discs back on all my bikes when they come out of storage.

Lastly, I have 20"/406 wheels, and Bike Friday has claimed for many years that shorter spokes are stronger. Actually, no. Shorter spokes are stiffer, and longer spokes, especially double-butted spokes, elastically stretch more than shorter spokes for the same tension, and this can prevent overstressing them, improving fatigue life, and so thus actually behave as if they are "stronger". Were that not the case, double-butted spokes would not be as valued as they are. Shorter, straight gauge spokes are also stiffer in bending, so are stressed a bit more where they exit the hub, and at the nipple, unless the rims are "aimed and drilled" to keep the spokes straight there.