The worse Season of RS for me yet

It is just questionable thing after questionable thing on the car this year.

Started with that noise every said don't worry about. Then moved to some form of oil leak on the motor behind the belts. Having a hell of a time getting it jacked up to really see under it. (local service center said yep looks like an oil leak when I had them glance at it and do my normal oil change) Yes server center sucks to work on this type of car but I don't have a spot to actually my own service right now.

About 3 weeks and 700 miles after the oil change started hearing a noise get worse almost sounds like metal on metal in the top half the motor. Feels like its around the valves. Checked the oil out of curiosity (had a friend joke I spun a bearing) and sure enough it was at the min line and black. When I brought it up to the service center they were super quick to blame the oil leak that it had lost 3 or more quarts because of the leak and say nope nothing they did would cause this but they would be happy to do a diagnostic for a steep cost and I can pay for any and all repairs.

They added a 1 quart and sent me on my way to setup a diagnostic appointment

So my final questions to the group is what are some things I can easily check or have a separate mechanic look at first before I have to do a wild deep dive.

Yes the oil leak is on the list and research says it could be from the head gasket being installed wrong without the additional sealant. Something that looks like was updated after mine had this work done.

Really starting to feel like the car just doesn't want to keep going now that its broke 125k miles....