Hi I19bal,
Don’t bother with this remote.
I’ve just brought it as the same thought as you. Looks great, but it is made out of plastic. It has WIFI, IR and also Bluetooth. But the Bluetooth only works if you have the gateway to pair the remote to the gateway for the initial setup to send over the wifi details. I have also purchased the gateway too, hence my findings. I haven’t tried adding a Bluetooth device to the remote.
I can’t seem to get it connected to Home Assistant via the cloud or local tuya intergration, it show up but i can only select the remote as a switch or other devices but not as a remote. So at the moment its useless. Yes, once paired with the Tuya gateway it’s fine. You can add in your IR devices but you cant customise the button layouts or remove any unused buttons, even if you manually teach your remote. The remote is part of tuya eco system, unless you have other tuya devices to use the zigbee side, not sure about the Bluetooth or WIFI side. But i can’t control my Yamaha amp over wifi, but can via IR.
Physical button on the remote is to navigate for the LCD, or some device with the direction and the ok button works like TV.
To add devices you still need the tuya app, even if the remote is standalone or with the gateway. You can point the remote at a device and then use the tuya app on your phone to control the devices you have added, if you want. It’s a glorified IR blaster. Haha
If you want a good remote then you will have to harmony elite with the hub of ebay as they have discontinued it.
Oh it also don’t wake up if you left it up, you have to press the physical button.
Zemismart has a better remote LF-DS01, but yet i still think this will be part of tuya eco system. To bad, as that remote looks and has cool features but with a high price tag.
Just to add, for remote, Sofabaton u2 or x1 but i don’t if it supported under home assistant.
Thanks
Rikki