Listening to Music on multiple devices

Please allow me to apologize up front for the frustration that will undoubtedly shine through here….

I feel like I’ve fell into the BS Apple Ecosystem con… i have the Ultra II watch, ipad, 4x Apple TV’s, 1 Macbook Air 15 m3, ,2 pairs of airpods pro 2,1 pair of airpods pro max, and 2 pairs of Home Pods (1 small set and 1 large set)…

I’m constantly frustrated with distance calibration on the watch… My 15pro max hangs & becomes unresponsive at least once or twice daily, but what has driven me to this community is the problem with MUSIC.

I had to sign up for the $25.95 per month Apple One family plan just so I would quit having problems playing my music. EXAMPLE… I’d come back from a run, wearing my Airpods. I’d take my airpods out and put them back in the charging case and try to just switch the output to my homepods in my office, and could not. I’d get a message basically telling me that I could only play music on 1 device. If I wanted more, I needed to upgrade to Apple One for the family plan… I could understand if I was trying to play music from my Mac AND my phone (two devices trying to access 1 music account at the same time)…. But not for speakers!!!

Same with switching from Airpods Pro to the Airpods pro Max… Same message…

After multiple chats and phone calls with apple support on this topic, I’ve just caved and paid for the Apple One plan. It’s been 3-4 months now and ever since I agreed to unnecessarily overpay for a service that I should not have to pay for, I’ve at least been able to listen to my music on whichever headphones I choose and now I can switch between them and my home pods whenever needed. It’s absolute nonsense… Just curious of others have experienced similar trouble?

Thank you.