I built this programming jig for the R1 and flash ESPHome on it directly. I don’t have an R2, but the wiring layout looks identical.
If you go the OTA route with Tasmota, you can very easily use the Tasmota upgrade to flash ESPHome binary OTA.
I am sort of 50/50 on ESPHome/Tasmota and not bothered about mixing or matching and I am presuming you might have a preference for ESPHome AKA Malfo Yaml?
I have a very rudimentary understanding of the difference between the 2 where Tasmota ships configurable binaries whilst ESPHome has a Yaml config file to direct a compile.
So ESPHome tends to be a smaller and more specific image whilst Tasmota is quite fat where they have had to split to several binaries for specific purpose.
Tasmota seems just a touch easier for the noob and also supports a few more devices?
Neither ESPHome or Tasmota seem to support BLE Mesh Sig for the fatter ESP32 devices which is a shame and maybe where ESPHome starts to lose ground as tiny smaller images is less of an advantage on the bigger fatter ESP32 variants.
Did I get that right in a rudimentary fashion? 
Yes, I do. I started with about a dozen devices running Tasmota but over the past few months I have been moving them all to ESPHome. Managing the devices in ESPHome is a bit easier than Tasmota- but that may be just me. Part of my motivation was to use the HA API instead of MQTT. Again, no particular reason, but my MQTT traffic was considerable. If I watch MQTT Explorer with no filters, I am reminded of the computer screens in the movie “The Matrix”. I guess that my main motivation was the tighter integration between the device and Home Assistant and reducing my dependence on MQTT.
In my Tasmota devices, I compiled my own binaries in the Arduino IDE. Once you get familiar with YAML- which I am, barely- the code for ESPHome devices actually starts making sense. (There’s a lot there that is optional).
BLE- Never used it.
ESP32- Never used one. But from my read, it’s just a matter of selecting the correct board and I/O pins in the YAML file. Everything else should be the same.
I don’t worry about the binary size (yet). My devices are a mix of ESP8266-01, Wemos D1 Minis and some Sonoff devices. As long as the code fits the available memory, I don’t care. And it’s yet to be an issue.
I think that you would be more likely to get assistance here for ESPHome configurations.
For a noob is there any reason for a bias as on 1st looks it seems 50/50 with maybe tasmota looking slightly more noob friendly.
I am still looking but much seems sensor orientated than actuators.
Didn’t really find anything BLE Mesh ESPHome wise.
I got 2x of these purely as BLE Mesh is new to me and out of curiosity to see what is inside and if with sig mesh already they can be used as is or flashed depending what is inside.
Tasmota I did find
As I said, I don’t use any BLE devices on Home Assistant or ESPHome. In fact, I don’t recall seeing many discussions here about BLE on ESPHome.
Why don’t you start by describing what you want to do?
Test out BLE Mesh but to be honest I am doing something else.
I got a wavshare than official as it has a built in camera.
Plus case as had a Pi3B spare.
So that it will be a https://mopidy.com/ Snapcast | snapcast spotify thing as going to retro fit 2x PiZ2 I have to make active speakers.
https://store.sure-electronics.com/product/AA-AB31184
The bluetooth relays will just turn off the input to the 2x 100watt 24v PSU’s I have so when not played for a while I don’t have them constantly on.
That is just something I will do as been playing with tensorflow for quite a long time and got KWS (Keyword spotting) almost down to a fine art by creating additional phonetically alike classifications.
So will play with voice control and because of the cam user profile identification.
So that really, but Pi 7" and case got me thinking to how it mostly can be mounted in wall as was thinking it could be a really great lovelace interface.
Hence got a vibration speaker to mount on the inside wall of the plaster board and a little electret in a LED bezel for a microphone, but likely will just use snapcast the vibration speaker or (aural exciter) was again just curiosity.
So I am looking at that whole video intercom / control panel thing and anything really purely as a bit of a hobbyist dev/builder curiosity.
So yeah I am just browsing and will be doing my maker thing setup and a bit of my usual hacky python programming or whatever I need to use, do the snapcast thing 1st.
But BLE Mesh has my interest and devices are becoming avail at low cost so I guess I will use something that can control them.
The gear will go into some relatively cheap but quite good ebay 2nd user bookshelf speakers.
Is it pre-flashed devices you are seeking? There are actually plenty of vendors selling “freed” devices already 
Well, BLE in general is painful to work with and I would never consider it for actors at all because it’s just not “stable” enough for that. That said I own more then 10 of these thingies here but bridge them directly with a esp32 into ha.
becomes that essentially
I don’t bother much in my case but the “low power” is actually a big problem of BLE - you essentially can block broadcasts with your body and they will never reach their destination. I think there is a (technical) reason that “BLE mesh” isn’t a thing 
Typically these low power devices use batteries 
… and yes, they need material and energy to build them, they need to be charged, they need to be transported and last but not least you also need to pay for it (don’t do the mistake and calculate the kWh price of a coin cell and compare it to the price of the energy that runs within wires in your house 
). Last but not least there is also someone who needs to change the batteries and typically also a point were things running on battery stop to work (because the battery is empty 
)
And just a thought: You probably have energy running inside your walls (and outlets) as well as a wifi infrastructure deployed at home - why not make use of the present infrastructure?
Yeah that perked my interest I only got 2 but I was wondering how many and what proximity do you need as if you have quite a dense high count presume they work but if sparse they are a bit pointless.
I got x2 more out of interest than application
You know what chip is working inside? Probably nothing you can really “own” (run your own code on it) - for me this stuff is out of scope because I want to have the “right” to own/repair/change etc. and that works only if I can buy hardware and run my own stuff on it (like esp based stuff and run esphome it). Full (local) control and updates guaranteed 
Dunno until I crack them open, which I will but my 1st choice is to buy and run off cloud as supplied with warranty.
These are only cheapos so it doesn’t matter but likely repair isn’t worth the time, but I am focussing on what I can use without need of firmware change.
I think it’s expensive for a device you can’t own and plan to trash because it can’t be repaired.
For the same price of one of your “cheapos” I got two of the same type of device but ones to “own” (esp inside )
You saw the links to the stores that sell devices with cloud free 
firmwares pre flashed?
Post a URL as I might buy those as well but I can assure you I will own them all
Non of those are in the UK from what I saw I got these off aliexpress as will crack them open and don’t intend to return.
We are indeed 
Preflashed & preconfigured too!
Maybe you’ll see us further afield soon 
- LocalBytes Founder & CEO
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