Turns out the cover component does not allow states other than open and close. The way HomeKit is implemented in Home Assistant does not comply with HMCharacteristic. I guess it would have to be written from scratch for API polling to get the gate’s position.
I installed 2 sensors and built a sensor template (when sensor 1 was closed and it just opened, while sensor 2 is open, door is opening; when sensor 2 was closed and it just opened, while sensor 1 is open, door is closing) that showed the correct state of the gate, but then again, Home Assistant would not pass those values to HomeKit, only open and close values. Truth be told, I’m having lots of problems with the cover component in HomeKit (sluggish, false openings, etc.).
Maybe HomeBridge is a better idea at this point? Any thoughts? Thanks!