I can relate to being frustrated with HA sometimes. I find it helps to walk away for a while, then come back and start at the beginning.
Personally, I gave up on HACS. I found it easier to just follow the manual installation instructions. HACS seems like unnecessary overhead; one more thing to monitor for breaking changes and bugs at every update. I know others will disagree with me on this. Many people use it without issue. Let’s just leave that as a personal preference. But still something you might want to consider.
If you go the manual install route, the files and instructions you need are here.
Next, review your config file. Do you have more than one binary_sensor: line? Could there be a spacing problem or typo somewhere? This is what I use, and it’s been working flawlessly:
binary_sensor:
# ... [other sensors] ...
# GPIO: rpi_gpio platform
- platform: rpi_gpio
ports:
5: Heat Zone 1
18: Heat Zone 2
22: Heat Zone 3
23: Heat Future
25: Boiler Burner
invert_logic: true
bouncetime: 500
Obviously not exactly what you need, but it’s proof that it can work.