RPi Digital Signage is really good. Binaryemotions.com. it's built thoughtfully for a bunch of different situations. The kiosk mode paired with some sort of start page would work.
I think it's time there is something like a mainstream TOR and a commercial internet. I hate the censorship but watching the kids get mind fucked is hard to watch.
If you have a Google account you can setup webhooks to a chat space. That's the best way if it supports it. If you continue to have this problem with email only you could setup n8n to receive notifications via other methods and forward them to a webhook.
The Ikea stuff works fine. When it comes to smart plugs, The IKEA switches make a louder solenoid "chonk" sound when they turn on. Xiaomi plugs are quieter and the smallest I've seen. Means you are more likely to fit something next to it. They are a little bit more expensive but I think worth it.
Looks a little pricey but probably would work fine. I bought my first zstack based Texas for $25. Worked fine for a couple of years till I realized it had a limit on how many devices it could handle. so I upgraded it to the next model up for another $25. That's when I found out if you change methods you have to re adopt everything. But if I kept it on the same method (zstack Texas zha) all I did was swap the dongle and everything kept rolling just with a higher limit of devices.
You could always punch a semi detailed account of your experience into https://goblin.tools/Formalizer set to "more passionate" or even "more sarcastic" and see if that grips your audience more. Then find a cafe or store that plays music, wait for a sad song to come on and let it rip.
I had an XYZ back then. It worked overall but was frustrating to use. I also got "back" into it and bought a second hand creality ender 3 V2 in a tent. It works effortlessly every time and I was pleased. Can't do tpu because bodum can't do tpu but it is reliable. Then my friend bought a Bambu and another friend bought an anycubic and I was mind blown about how far they've come. Speed and reliability and colour change reliability. Crazy. I think the modern machines are worth the extra money.
I was looking up a review of a mediocre tech gadget the other day. It turned out it sucked, in research Google took me to Reddit and every third post about it was a glowing "I use blah every day and it works perfectly for my needs and I'm glad I bought it." The negative posts were obviously real with details about annoying quirks and the very positive posts were obviously AI/sponsored. And it reminded me why I left and how normal this has become.
And build your own shelter with the results.