Radio recommendation: ZBT-2 vs SLZB-MRxU or something else?

Hardware
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Hello everyone,

First post on this forum.

I am about to set up some home automation without prior experience and I’d appreciate some advice on a specific hardware choice.

I live in a country where these products can’t be bought locally, shipping is expensive, and import fees are high. Therefore I strongly prefer to get the hardware purchase right the first time, and keep it for many years. Returns/exchanges are not going to be feasible.

I narrowed the choice down to either two ZBT-2s or a single SMLight SLZB-MRxU (MR3U or MR4U). Advice on these (or other alternatives), especially based on first-hand experiences, would be much appreciated. I summarize the use case and specific situation below:

  • I will get a Home Assistant Green.
  • Main use case is smart lighting, almost exclusively with IKEA hardware (because of local availability and pricing).
  • IKEA is transitioning from Zigbee to Matter-over-Thread, so I will need to handle both. I already have several lights and remotes, but the remotes are currently paired directly to lights.
  • Apartment is very roughly a 15-by-6 metre rectangle, with only one concrete wall splitting it as 6+9 metres. Rough schematic is below with radio placement at the red dot due to practical constraints. WiFi router is near there but can be vertically separated.
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  • Reliability and redundancy is a high priority for me.
  • As I understand, Zigbee and Thread will need separate radios.
    • Getting two ZBT-2s is one option, but it’s a fairly large unit that is hard to make visually unobtrusive. I’d need to get 3 m long USB cables to provide proper separation.
    • A single MRxU comes wirh two radios and is easier to hide. It supports PoE which I might be able to use in the future for a better radio placement within the apartment (this won’t be possible at first). However, there are some concerning reports about reliability (e.g. here) and returning a problem unit is not cost effective in my situation.

I’m leaning towards the MRxU (easier to hide, better future placement), but I’m seriously concerned about reliability. Advice?