Everyone, what do you think is the best Mesh WiFi solution at present?

So, this is what I want to do.

Current situation:
Wired LAN for my apartment and my garage is OK. CAT6, working beautifully in both locations. Nothing wrong there.
MY Apt and my garage are physically separated from each other by other apartments in my building (two floors below me, then, below that, is my garage). So, from the perspective my wired LAN, both locations are in one network (good). From WiFi perspective, coverage of the apartment does not, and should not, reach the garage, and vice versa. Not intentionally, I mean: to do that I should beam a very strong signal though other people's private property, as you can understand. So, currently, WiFi coverage in my apartment is insured by a good Linksysy WiFi Access Point (router configured in bridge mode, as I want it), and in my garage by using another Wireless Access Point, similarly configured, also good.

I decided to go with a single SSID and same WPA2 password. So, as I go from my pt to my garage and vice versa, my devices will disconnect from my apartment as I leave it, and re-connect to my garage wifi as I get there, with the same configuration. Since there has to be a coverage hole in between, this has never bothered me. Some device occasionally complained when realizing that the two identically configured networks are in fact not the same, but then they learn, and all is good.

Plan:
Here comes MESH upgrade.
Why?
Well, after working daily from home for months, I found out my great wifi netowrk is not that great after all . In particular, we refurnished my apt balcony (thankfully we have one), and both my wife and I spent much more time there. I worked from there a lot. There, signal is just OK, and not as consistent as I'd like.
So, I am considering an upgrade, and, since I am at it, maybe going MESH makes sense, as I like the Idea that I can add nodes as needed over time. Also, what if I could bring together my garage wifi and my apt wifi in a more solid way, not only by using same SSID and credentials? That'd be great.

So, main question is:
Do MESH nodes (Access points) need to see each other wirelessly with whatever the mesh protocol does via radio, or will they see each other and work well if they only are connected one another via LAN?
If so, all I need to do is buy a set of 3 MESH devices (Linksys VELOP series seems ok), use one to replace my current WiFi router, configure it as a Bridge (it can be done, THAT I did find out on their website), place a second node in the apt close to the balcony and join it via mesh radio, and place a third node in the garage and connect it via LAN.

I can't find on Linksys website anything that confirms I can do that last part.

Any help is welcome

Thank you!