@thrusty Sound great.

Out of curiosity I have checked whether or not NuC provides for GPIO headers in general, and actually some models do!
If you have an applicable model suitable kernel drivers appear to be available for Linux and Windows. On Linux the gpio channels are logically mapped to io devices. There is a tech note which describes all the details including examples how the io states can changed using file system commands. However, this should be used with care as the electrical characteristic of the extension header may no be as robust as what it is with raspberry pi.

Here is a tech note for some older models. There may be more information on the Intel website for other models

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/boardsandkits/custom-solutions-header-whitepaper.pdf

Homeduino