[adolph]

Yes, I was on the fence about mentioning that 8266 isn't great for new work since it is going away (however slowly). Additionally, moving to Espressif's newer SoC adds security features that 8266 doesn't have. In my mind the route forward is ESP32-C3 for low power and ESP-C6 for speed/capacity, since both are on RISC-V ISA as opposed to ESP32[-S[2,3]]'s LX7.

[Edit] Also, I hadn't looked at the WeMos ESP32 mini, but the examples I saw aren't pinout compatible (prolly b/c the 32 has a lot more) and don't have the handy 5v boost converted pin. That means that the above WS2812 project would need to add a 3-5v boost converter. Not a biggie, but 50% more parts...