I’d like to thank those who attempted to answer and provide some help. The guidance I have received has shown me that HA is not something I want to use in a VM, Docker or running under Linux. I may revisit it if/when I get a Pi to play with, but in the mean time, thanks for your comments.
I have HA and zwave-js running on old intel hardware. It has been responsive and reliable. If you wish to try again I’m happy to help.
Thank you for the kind offer but I’ve already moved on with another platform and am having excellent results with it.