I really want to get into these Lora based mesh tools but the range in my experience is terrible. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, maybe it's a lack of nodes in my area.

I just tested the other day. I'm in the midwest US so it's winter, no leaves. I managed to get about a quarter mile before my two portable nodes couldn't talk to each other. T-Echo with muziworks whip antenna.

Without a bunch of solidly placed, high elevation, high gain antenna nodes, this just isn't really that usable.

Plus, all the other issues others have highlighted.

Height is might.

I couldn't get ANYTHING on my first/test ESP32 (Heltec v2).

Anything. I didn't see any packets. Then I finally heard one station later when I held it high on the upper floor.

The I hanged it at the top of my roof and I currently have almost 130 repeaters and room servers.

In your scenario a couple of 5W handhelds woukd work better.

But I agree the usabity is very limited. This is why I think of hanging a couple of guerilla solar repeaters in my neighborhood :)