Z-Wave devices don’t care - they’ll connect directly if they can, but will go direct if they can’t.
If it won’t connect then it means there’s no signal for it to connect to 
Of course, non Plus Z-Wave devices are far more tricky to get connected - you have to connect them by the controller, then relocate and run Heal on the whole mesh.
I’d suggest you head over to the #zwave channel on the Discord server where you’ll find folks who know Z-Wave really well.