Do devs get paid royalties? If not, why would they be mad at something that doesn’t affect them?

It’s great when you’re young and have the spare time and energy on such things.

I mainly use the external hardware as a workaround for unwanted noise from the pc. It bothers me to no end to hear the mouse cursor scream into my headphone/speakers.

I use an external usb dac/amp to handle all my audio switching and has been working flawlessly on debian. Could that be an option for you?