Hi I use a Raspberry Pi 2 with a USB wifi dongle and it works great.
Not all dongles work however, I had to get one supported by the RPi firmware, but most of them work.
Some of us around here have been fighting this image that home assistant has presented that the only way is hassio. It’s an uphill battle that won’t be won it appears.
If you look as the docs on the HA website, HassIO is presented as the main option for new users and beginners, while the docker/venv/hassbian installs are there but you have to hunt around the documentation to see these options.