I chose a similar path on our place, but went a bit further:

- cat5e cable to about every sensor or consumer to be automated, star topology

- central Olimex esp32 gateway running esphome

- some i2c multiplexer boards

- old thinkpad running home assistant

That should get us all of:

- physical controls

- cheap

- open hardware

- running free software

- all wired, no wireless

- graceful fallback in case of most failures

- configuration version controlled