WTH can remote serial devices not be easily mounted as /dev/tty virtual devices?

Yes I totally agree. This is simply a workaround and still doesn’t address all of the use cases. For example, since it’s a switch I’m not sure if I can use it to adjust the volume. Since it’s a Matrix I had to write a ton of repetitive yaml to make it work. But at least it got the AV Matrix (which was the last key integration) into HA. Something is better than nothing and I thought it could help someone else.