BTW, one small note: “Association“ has a very specific technical meaning for Z wave, and I don’t think that’s what you were talking about in your note. You just meant an initial add to the network, right? That’s just called “joining“ or “including.“ “Association“ and “Deassociation” Is an entirely separate process with a separate set of network commands.
I just mention that because association did change significantly with the newest generation of Zwave, and it did cause some complexity when mixing devices of different generations. But the specific model you mentioned, the Zooz Zen21, only supports the minimum level of association, the lifeline group, which is the same as older generations and shouldn’t have caused any problems.
https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/1945/assoc?noFilename=True