Make sure the device you pick up has low latency. Not sure if you can find specs like that in the spec sheets. For watching video, latency is not an issue, but when gaming, you want as little time as possible to go by between you pressing a button and the thing showing up on the screen.

Yes your Matrix homeserver does have to run the bridges. So I agree with you - you have to somewhat trust the admins of your Homeserver, or host your own homeserver and bridges. But I understand that the latter is not for everyone.

Which funnily enough, has bridges to Signal, Whatsapp, Discord, Telegram and some more, meaning you wouldn’t have to have as many other clients installed to chat with contacts on those platforms