It's possible to run all of the audio output on a Linux box through a VST, if you want that.

For example: https://www.benashby.com/resources/pipewire-vst-carla/

Additional latency can also be dealt in ways that are probably good-enough for streaming/local media. Just make sure the audio output stack has a fixed latency and then adjust Kodi's audio offset to work with it.

carla!! of course how could i have forgotten, i tried to figure it out a few years ago when i was still new to linux but got completely lost on the basics

thank you for the resource!