Well I use conky on i3wm, dwm, hlwm, openbox (setup and run as a tiler), swaywm ,dkwm… If you check forums on EOS, ArchLabs, Arch, Debian, BunsenLabs, Gentoo among a few you will find people using Conky on Tiling Window Managers. Here are a few articles and tutorials I have written on the topic, if you wish to read them:
https://eirenicon.org/?s=conky
As for your preference of what is or is not essential, that’s your preference; you are entitled to your preference. However, your preference does not necessarily mean that any, many, or most necessarily agree with you…
I wish I had a good answer/ solution.
Have you asked on the Arch, Endeavour, Manajaro Forums? Perhaps someone there has an answer. My observation is that Wayland, in general, is a bit wonky and unpredictable with certain x11 tools and their operation. This seems it may be one of those. If you are in need to something similar to Conky, you might try EWW. I have seen that tool behave unpredictably at times as well… but it’s ‘supposed’ to be Wayland friendly.