I know I kind of made a wall of text over a simple question! I would have skimmed too.
TY for the reply regardless, really JellySeerr is the thing that I want to integrate with a two-way messaging client that has a facebook-messenger-like UX, as that is the most approachable for anyone that is on the server (and seemingly everyone on the planet that has lived in the 2020’s).

I agree, I think the consensus in this thread is definitely Matrix, and I have had my eye on it for a good while anyway. I’m up for some new learning tasks. Do you know if it’s possible to restrict what users sync with my matrix instance?

I think you are right on the money here, I appreciate the push to Matrix. I’ve had my eye on it for other things for ages regardless.

Hah, very fair. Trouble I’m having is that my friend group aren’t the type to check their emails, so that takes care of grandma-demographic but does not take care of the “social media please fill my inbox” demographic. Matrix is definitely where I’m leaning, that has other applications for me anyway.

I have Gotify working now for one-directional, but the return channel is really the item I need.

That is definitely a thought! I think I’m going to take the recommendations from folks here to try Matrix, as I’ve wanted a bridge to replace Signal (now that it no longer supports SMS). If that fails, or becomes too tough for the users, I’ll probably be doing Telegram!

Hah! I am in exactly the opposite situation, I’m trying to get people to tell me about broken things MORE because so far they just feel like they’re bothering me if they let me know. I want to give them an easy path to do so.