In order to use zwave association, the association needs to be set on the initiating device, and unfortunately both the Aeotec and Zooz do not have any other association groups besides “group 1”, which is just the lifeline group that associates the device back to the zwave controller. There is no way to set a direct association with them to a different device since there are no other groups to specify.
CORRECTION - see post below from Freshcoast - it looks possible to specify more than just the controller in the group 1 association.
Since the Inovelli devices would be the “receiving” devices, the fact they have association groups unfortunately would not help.
Most of the time, one wouldn’t want to set a direct association with a motion sensor anyway, because it would trigger all the time, every time. You generally want to specify conditions in an automation (time of day, light level, presence, etc) before the sensor triggers a light to come on. I think an older jasco motion sensor allowed direct association, but I’m not sure if there are others on the market now that would.
I have several zigbee motion sensors that almost instantly trigger the zwave devices though. An automation should work fine through Home Assistant, and there should be minimal to no delay, definitely not one that is noticeable. If you have delays, it sounds like you have other issues with the zwave network that need to be sorted out. One issue with Inovelli switches is they sometimes flood the network with power management reports, slowing everything down. If you don’t need those reports, I would go in the config parameters and disable them, or set them up to not send constantly.