This looks like a viable competitor to the recently announced HA Voice Preview hardware. Looks like it’s sold out at this point but there will be more coming. More microphones, presence detection and a builtin amplifier to run fairly substantial speakers.
https://futureproofhomes.net/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=product_shelf
A unit in a main area that can do presence sensing and has good audio IO is something I would happily buy. The board is separate so you can use an ESP32 or a rPi.
Ah, that wasn’t super clear to me. So GPIO hate on an ESP32 carrier makes more sense. Since mmwave is directional, the sensor placement on this was confusing as hell to use as an RPi hat, but 🤷