So helium is a limited resource. Okay gotcha. So why not take two hydrogen atoms. Take their protons and neutrons. And just fucking start squeezing them together until you get helium?
And I don’t mean in the same way you get H2. Those are still separate from each other.
Our sun will stop at carbon, then hang around until it either becomes a brown dwarf, or flies through enough matter to his the Chandrasekhar limit, then KABOOM!