Just wanted to follow up with some new experiences and provide some feedback:
First of all, MiniMotes are working MUCH MUCH better since I got rid of the “Button Controller” SmartApp. That said, it still seems to go south on regular basis where it just seems to lose contact with the hub or something - at those times when they are not working, it seems that the MiniMotes are trying to tell me something with an elaborate patterns of blinking of the blue and red LEDs - but I cannot find any information about these patterns, so, who knows… I think you are right on it getting confused on waking up (as usually this happens after not using the remote for a while and after this sort of a freakout, once it starts working, it keeps working - so I guess it establishes a route…) but it is a lot more than a second, it usually takes a minute or two of pressing various buttons before either it starts working or we give up. I am starting to wonder if my ZWave bulbs are actually acting as repeaters or not… I may need to add a dedicated repeater somewhere here - though it has not helped in the past…
Second, at your urging I have re-read the remotes thread and took a closer look at the Sylvania’s Switch. I even bought one. It is (relatively) cheap and while the form factor was not exactly what I was hoping for, it definitely fits my needs of having a simple enough switch with on and off sides. I think this is a winner. It was easy to pair with ST, and as easy to program as any other button device (which is not bad once you know what you are doing and know how to get around SmarthThings’ app bugs, and avoid “Button Controller” SmartApp ). Once I configured it, I was blown away at the speed and reliability of it. It worked every time and fast. So I moved it to the location I actually wanted it in… and things got murkier… It works, except when it doesn’t - and when it doesn’t often I am getting very odd behavior. Specifically It seems to queue up all the attempts… and then execute them all in a row a minute or two later. I am wondering if I am having a range issue as I primarily have Z-Wave devices now in this location, so I moved a Zigbee plug adapter close to this and going to see if the issue will go away…
Thanks for the answers. I will keep on plugging away at it. I still think there is value in the GE’s approach to things, but as GE stopped making these and there are apparently no others that work that way, I guess I need to look elsewhere… Thanks again.