How to determine the synchronization status of the daemon for wallet balance?

Question

I'm most certainly not looking to "run a full node" nor to download the blockchain. While the daemon looks to be running correctly:

nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ monerod --db-sync-mode safe:async:1000
2023-05-20 11:35:26.320 I Monero 'Oxygen Orion' (v0.17.2.0-unknown)
2023-05-20 11:35:26.320 I Initializing cryptonote protocol...
2023-05-20 11:35:26.320 I Cryptonote protocol initialized OK
2023-05-20 11:35:26.321 I Initializing core...
2023-05-20 11:35:26.321 I Loading blockchain from folder /home/nicholas/.bitmonero/lmdb ...
2023-05-20 11:35:26.406 I Loading checkpoints
2023-05-20 11:35:26.424 I Core initialized OK
2023-05-20 11:35:26.424 I Initializing p2p server...
2023-05-20 11:35:26.432 I p2p server initialized OK
2023-05-20 11:35:26.432 I Initializing core RPC server...
2023-05-20 11:35:26.432 I Binding on 127.0.0.1 (IPv4):18081
2023-05-20 11:35:28.444 I core RPC server initialized OK on port: 18081
2023-05-20 11:35:28.445 I Starting core RPC server...
2023-05-20 11:35:28.445 I core RPC server started ok
2023-05-20 11:35:28.446 I Starting p2p net loop...
2023-05-20 11:35:29.446 I 
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I **********************************************************************
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I The daemon will start synchronizing with the network. This may take a long time to complete.
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I 
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I You can set the level of process detailization through "set_log <level|categories>" command,
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I where <level> is between 0 (no details) and 4 (very verbose), or custom category based levels (eg, *:WARNING).
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I 
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I Use the "help" command to see the list of available commands.
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I Use "help <command>" to see a command's documentation.
2023-05-20 11:35:29.447 I **********************************************************************
status
Height: 1/1 (100.0%) on mainnet, not mining, net hash 0 H/s, v1, 1(out)+1(in) connections, uptime 0d 0h 0m 7s
sync_info
Height: 1, target: 1 (100%)
Downloading at 0 kB/s
Next needed pruning seed: 1
2 peers
188.165.168.77:18080      0000000000000000  before_handshake  0         0  0 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued
162.218.65.83:64898       5468dc948ab9ae62  normal            0         1  0 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued
0 spans, 0 MB
[]
version
Error: The daemon software version is not available.

how would it be determined that the it's fully up to date?

I ask because the wallet which I've restored still shows a balance of zero.

Perhaps the daemon isn't fully updated in some respect, or isn't connected properly?

I'm certainly not looking for a huge download, as it seems to be doing:

2023-05-20 11:42:12.227 I Synced 30996/2688967 (1%, 2657971 left)
2023-05-20 11:42:12.464 I Synced 31096/2688967 (1%, 2657871 left)
2023-05-20 11:42:12.659 I Synced 31196/2688967 (1%, 2657771 left)
2023-05-20 11:42:12.852 I Synced 31296/2688967 (1%, 2657671 left)
2023-05-20 11:42:13.047 I Synced 31396/2688967 (1%, 2657571 left)
2023-05-20 11:42:13.414 I Synced 31496/2688967 (1%, 2657471 left)
2023-05-20 11:42:14.336 I p2p net loop stopped
2023-05-20 11:42:14.407 I Stopping core RPC server...
2023-05-20 11:42:14.407 I Node stopped.
2023-05-20 11:42:14.407 I Deinitializing core RPC server...
2023-05-20 11:42:14.408 I Deinitializing p2p...
2023-05-20 11:42:14.415 I Deinitializing core...
2023-05-20 11:42:14.432 I Stopping cryptonote protocol...
2023-05-20 11:42:14.432 I Cryptonote protocol stopped successfully
nicholas@mordor:~$ 

Might there be a sort of "proxy" for the purpose of just checking wallet balance? I'm not overly concerned about security and have no intention of sending coins.