I can conclude this thread from my end - by saying - I have moved on
1 - The rPI + Hifiberry Hat + the other peripherals are all gone.
2 - The last experiment was MOODE and it worked flawlessly! Anyone who is trying this out should check out moode - it is the most stable & worked with everything. All features and even the touch screen was easy to work with, spotify, etc all played.
This was a sometimes frustrating & mostly fun experiment. It was like solving a million piece puzzle, and every time something fit, it was hugely rewarding!
Thanks for all the spoon feeding I received from members here! Couldn't have done without you guys!