BTW, I was just researching this last week (the christmas display) and ESP32 has a matter compatible chip now... so you an control all this from Apple Home and the other Smart Home platforms.
Absolutely mind blowing. What a fun time to do side projects.
esp32 has wifi so it it's trivial to hook it to mqtt which then exposes it to home assistant
I think you're confusing Matter and Thread. ESP32-H* have Thread radio, but every esp32 that has wifi is able to talk Matter over WiFi.
I have virtual power outlets and fans that actually just some process on linux.