Since you seem to have the needed skill level, are you interested in looking as to why the current binding does not work compared to the milight app and also iobroker? I don’t own a ibox or any OEM bridge for that matter so I can not do this and you can read the history of the current situation in this thread…
If someone sniffs and documents their findings correctly it will greatly assist someone that can code to improve the situation. I would prefer to look at how the app communicates as further bridges are more likely to continue in the same direction as the app.
As mentioned I have flawless operation using the open source bridge and the binding that I wrote so I am not keen to purchase hardware to look at something when I feel the opensource hub is far superior and more likely to still be working in 20 years time as the full code is opensource.
You will be surprised as you can make a bridge as powerful as a wifi router at going through walls and distance. I have a single hub doing my whole large house currently but will be installing at least two for redundancy reasons not coverage. As with all wifi, metal in your walls does block and create dead spots so moving the bridge around can find a better spot.
For getting good range see this post. Ordering in the parts does take time.