I2S is definitely 8 channel I/O you have to create your own softvols via asound.conf but yeah they work.
RockPiS is an unusual soc due to its VoiceAI focus haven’t checked on others how many channels but I2S is pretty standard but usually 2/4 channel.
Not sure about USB Audio OTG as would like to do that as well? I2S mic & DAC has been done by RockPiS users, OTG just haven’t seen it done.
Codec gets disconnected as I2S is then card index 0 or 1 or whatever instead of internal DAC & ADC.
I think really there should be an overlay where it uses the simplesocdai instead but if you edit the DTB as