I'm well aware that dmix can be disabled, I'm just not sure what that has to do with anything. Alright so it's not interesting for you, just informing others that ALSA definitely is not useless. I have ES with menu sounds and omxplayer both outputting at the same time with ALSA at the moment, it's an option. I don't do guessing, I do testing
Mind sharing your configuration? I've been trying to implement something using ALSA and dmix but I have failed