Trying to make a puck js doorbell and need advice on range

anything opaque in the way (wood, walls, whatever) appears to block it.

Wow, that's not good at all - especially with the long range aerial. I seem to be able to get through walls/floors here (but 2 walls is pushing it).

I'd definitely say take a look at ESPHome then... This is what I use in my config.yaml file to enable BTHome:

esp32_ble_tracker:
  scan_parameters:
    interval: 320ms
    window: 120ms

bluetooth_proxy:
  active: true

By default the scan window is only 30ms every 320ms, so under 10% - so unless you change window away from the default, you're pretty much guaranteed not to receive any of the normal 375ms advertisements in any sensible timeframe.