I was doing that too for all of my projects. I was developing them as if they were products I could potentially sell. When I accepted that I wasn't ever going to do that, I gave ESPHome a try.

> took less than an hour to write since I was able to copy-paste all of that boilerplate from a previous project.

It would probably take 5 minutes to configure from scratch ESPHome, less time if you're copying from an existing config. In addition to that, you get automatic logging into Home Assistant and deep integration for free.

Using Hypfer's discovery[1] that you could read the raw values from Ikea's Vindriktning using an ESP, I wrote an ESPHome script for an ESP01 that pipes the data into Home Assistant. Now when I'm cooking and the air quality gets too bad my HVAC fan kicks on to clear the air. It took longer to solder everything up than it did to "code".

YAML:

    esphome:
      name: air-quality-sensor-1

    esp8266:
      board: esp01_1m

    # Enable logging
    logger:
    # Disable logging
      baud_rate: 0

    # Enable Home Assistant API
    api:

    ota:
      password: !secret aqs_ota_password

    wifi:
      ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
      password: !secret wifi_password

      # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
      ap:
        ssid: "Air-Quality-Sensor-1"
        password: !secret aqs_hotspot_password

    captive_portal:

    # Setup Ikea Vindriktning PM2.5 sensor
    uart:
      rx_pin: GPIO3
      baud_rate: 9600

    sensor:
      - platform: pm1006
        pm_2_5:
          name: "Ikea Vindriktning PM25"
          filters:
            - sliding_window_moving_average:
                window_size: 10
                send_every: 10