I would like to announce to those who are reading this note:
I just purchased a Raspberry Pi Zero2W - which has a retail cost of approx. $15 (USD - here in Canada, everything costs more!)
I loaded it up with Debian Buster (version 10), and Homebridge according to instructions in the git hub. (Note: Version 11 - Bullseye still has a number of issues, as of the present time, November 2021).
It works without any issues - including the config web page at port 8581.
I tested it out with approximately 50 devices, and have found the response time to be within acceptable norms.
Amazing!
A big Hooray to @Tonesto7 for writing up such an amazing program!
I will now try and load it up with other applications, and see how it handles the strain. I will update this post as needed.
Now if only we could get our hands on more of these ....
(I should have bought more at launch when they were available for about a day or two, even if I had to get from multiple sellers 
)