Zigbee will take its own route. You can join one near a repeater, and it may connect through that repeater, but it can change routes on its own. You will have no control over the routes it changes to. Covering your home evenly with repeaters will serve you well.
Just because a device joins through a repeater, does not mean it will stay connected. They can still drop. The ConBee 2 Zigbee dongle has worked best for me with the IKEA Symfonisk sound controller, and there are many reports of the same positive experience. I don’t find many positive experiences with joining these particular IKEA devices directly with HE, and my own experience mirrors that too.
