is there a way to approach being a landlord in an ethical and community-minded way?

One landlord may be more or less "ethical and community minded" than another, but being a landlord is 100% about profiting from somebody else's precariousness. The best you can say is, "Don't hate the player, hate the game." I appreciate a landlord who fixes the broken pipes and doesn't totally gouge me... but that always feels like Stockholm Syndrome.

Would being transparent with the renter about the total cost of owning the property, like the mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance, etc., then basing the rent payment off that total cost plus 10% or something be ethical?

I don't see what difference that would make. They still get to set the price, and you can either take it or leave it.

I also recognize that many people don’t want the commitment that comes with purchasing a home.

I suspect that this number is extremely low.

How can the need for those people be met without landlords existing?

Easily with far (far far far) fewer landlords.

It's genuinely ridiculous to paint "rental homes" as some boutique service offered as a choice to home-owners who have money for a house but just don't want the "commitment" (?!?!?!?!?) of not throwing a huge portion of your money away every month. Absurd.

I don't hate small landlords. We all have to betray humanity to avoid being homeless. We work at unscrupulous companies, because what other kind of companies are usually hiring? But we don't have to contort ourselves to the point of breaking every single bone in our bodies to morally justify profiting from the unfair precariousness of people terrified of homelessness.