Sir, take it from a random person on the internet, you're more than kind. Thank you so much for the details and bits of your own experience to make it relatable.
Even though I have many Kasa switches I do want the option 3 that was raised earlier. Again, many thanks.
If they're the older Kasa bulbs/switches (before they got all Matter), they have a dead simple local, MAC-addressed TCP packet protocol. I've implemented basic ON/OFF commands in ESPHome C++ code, but there's also a command line tool: https://github.com/python-kasa/python-kasa?tab=readme-ov-fil... There's a list at the bottom of supported devices.
Last used the command-line utility with a PowerShell script to make the lights in the playroom do a rainbow-random color dance party for the kiddos. Was nice to crank out a working automation in 2 minutes.
I have a bunch of Kasa devices. I got them before Tasmota was really on the scene, because they are configurable and controllable without Internet access. The protocol could be better, but it does work. I've heard that TP-Link may have changed the protocol since then (at least on some devices), so YMMV.
