ZWave Mesh Not Meshing

[SmartHomePrimer]

He must have forgotten. He was asking about it in another thread.

HEMv1 (DSB09) Custom DTH; Which One?

So, I finally got around to installing 3 random Zooz switches I've had for 3 years. I wonder if their firmware is just so old, they're being a PITA, or if it's this HEM. Regardless, in hindsight, I am not buying any more ZWave devices. I wonder: when this HEM is powered by USB, it probably acts as a repeater (possibly causing issues). However, if I instead wire up the battery ports with a wall wart, would this disable the repeating, and allow the device to simply run as a battery powered dev…