This seems like a good idea, but I hope it doesn't stop the recent tradition of yarn-bombing[0] the postboxes[1][2]. The ones near me are really creative, change with seasons & national holidays, and just add a bit of British whimsy to day-to-day life.
(Looks like there's already some articles on this angle [3]!)
Zigbee2mqtt has a huge number of supported devices (here's their official list [0]), which can also be expanded if the existing mappings don't work.
It took me a minute to find, but the full MQTT structure is detailed here [1], and then individual devices detail what they expose on their page (e.g. this [2] is a random Sonoff temperature sensor). This means that the topic "zigbee2mqtt/sonoff-temp-example" will just have a simple JSON message with '{"humidity":46.93,"temperature":21.73, ...}'.
Have you considered Zigbee2mqtt[0]? You'd be running an extra program, but the docs are really good, it's pretty lightweight, and MQTT is incredibly easy to talk to from python or basically anything else. It's compatible with HomeAssistant (which is how I use it), but can be used standalone without having to run HA at all. It also means you don't have to handle the weird idiosyncrasies between different manufacturers.
Spore was especially interesting if you used the in game friend list. I had a great time experiencing worlds full of various creatures - a lot of which were from my artistically talented friend playing around with the creation tools. His experience was unfortunately ruined because the game decided that each evolution of my creature was distinct and deserved to be shown to him separately - it was like his whole galaxy was overrun with my (admittedly unimaginative) "wobba-pods" with just different variations of hats and facial hair...
(Looks like there's already some articles on this angle [3]!)
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box_topper
[2] - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63833983
[3] - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9q5jwv18o