Not to mention that this Agile methodology is burning out people pretty fast. It puts a lot of pressure on developers.

Frigate or Bluetooth I guess

It is never too late to learn something like this. Especially now when there are so many resources that can help you to learn it. It is another story if you want to find a job as a programmer, because I think the majority of companies prefer to hire younger talents.

Python is an excellent choice for a beginner.

Good luck and keep going!

That’s the agile mentality, where PO are pressuring you to deliver on your Sprint goals. In my opinion working on Scrums really burns down people

Then buy ZigBee devices and a Sonoff/ConBee ZigBee Gateway

For example tuya is an example of white label brand and other companies are buying their products in bulk and doing OEM with some shitty software on top of it and charging a premium.

I am more interested in devices that are generic, not having any brand bloat on them

Yes, they are just white labeling the devices

You also can try to install some minimal Linux distro and run some Pihole, Plex, Jellyfin, homeassistant, etc.

Funnily you would have this because of the European Unions directive and at the time Apple was opposing the move, because they want them to get their Lightning license fee from all third party makers of accessories and this source of income would dry up once they switch to USB-C.

I am actually a bit surprised of how many people are supporting Apple’s anti consumer behavior by buying their stuff.