Since 2020 I have had one of these www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-S... - I know you said 5 ports but it is always useful to have a few extra. Never had any issues and it is even in a cupboard, just plug and play.
So my recollection is the quoted bit in Linsley was accepted as being just a correct statement of principle that the EAT in Hilaire were happy to attribute to Linsley, building upon Smith and fact that something is objective.
Ok this is not a direct answer but in Hilaire v Luton BC [2023] IRLR 122 at [12] it decoupled the objective point (Smith) from the point that the result of this is that employer not required to select best but just needs to be reasonable (effectively the Linsley point).
