Not only do I use pi-hole, my so called smart TV never connects to the Internet in my household. Hell, I don’t buy any smart devices period.

Vampire$ is criminally underrated.

Was there an issue on the desktop? I just use wired because I don’t need my desktop (Fedora) to be wireless.

I bought the GuliKit KK3 MAX and have nothing but good to say about it.

I use it with the Steamdeck via Bluetooth and wired with my desktop. You can also switch out the stupid Nintendo button layout for the normal one. Also, no proprietary software needed to configure or update it.

but date tells me nothing about backward compatibility

The date IS the major/minor version. Knowing when the thing was released is bonus metadata. A lot of people find it useful.