You'll be very pleased with Hubitat. Not just because the hardware is so much more modern than Vera, but the community and staff are infinitely more vibrant and helpful. If you encounter any obstacles during the changeover, you won't be alone. There are a ton of Vera veterans here!
Some questions to ask yourself, before I answer yours:
- Were you a PLEG user? If so, you'll love Rule Machine.
- Were you a Reactor user? Ditto. In fact, Reactor works with Hubitat, so you might even be able to bridge some of your automations over to the C-8 Pro before you get all your devices paired. Only you'll have to adjust your thinking on what constitutes a "Trigger" vs "Action".
- Were you using Alexa Speaks? Check out its fancy cousin Echo Speaks once you get aboard Hubitat. Setup is cringe, but the payoff is handsome.
- Did you know you can unpair ZW devices with any ZW hub? You can go ahead and retire the Vera; it won't be needed for the transition.
You asked whether it's possible to carry the Elevation hub around connected to a USB battery (as opposed to an extension cord, lol), for pairing devices requiring close proximity, like some Locks and S2-enabled things. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the radio range on the C-8 Pro! Honestly, unless you have a HUGE floorplan, there's a chance you won't even need repeaters (or as many of them).
Come back to the Forum, and post under the appropriate category, if you wind up having any questions or concerns. I'm confident that your Hubitat experience will make you wonder why you waited. Suddenly, things like managing Modes and installing built-in & community apps will seem like child's play.
My first recommendation would be to install Hubitat Package Manager (HPM), not solely as a good exercise in porting code over to your new hub, but also as the magic gateway to other important add-ons you'll want.