HomeKit automations not working

They used to work. Now they don't. The only thing I've changed is that I updated my iPad Air 4 to iPadOs (latest version at the end of October 2022).

But my iPad is not the hub for the HomeKit. I have two HomePod minis that are paired for stereo. They're supposed to be the hub.

Under the settings for the Home app on my MacBook, under "Hubs & Bridges" it shows one of the speakers as "connected" and the other says "standby."

Somewhere on these discussions where someone else brought up the problem, an Apple Genius responded, saying basically disconnect everything and set it up all over again from scratch, including manually redoing all the automations. That's not good enough.

It's supposed to "just work", right?

Now I'm trying to submit this comment. It's dragging me through multiple steps to choose devices and indicate the problem. Well, I don't know that it's a device-specific problem. And HomeKit hasn't shown up anywhere as an option. I said that the problem is with the HomePod mini because it's forcing me to say something but I don't know that that's actually where the problem is.