I pair my bolt with a garmin watch for heart rate. I already owned the watch when I got the bolt, not sure if it makes sense paying for the whole watch when all you need is a heart rate monitor, but they are compatible.

I use a magene heart strap for 20 bucks on Amazon and it works great with my roam. I have had it 2 years now.

Your elemnt bolt will connect to any ant+ hrm, so you can get any ant+ hrm (including, say, garmin, polar, etc). It will work just as well as a wahoo hrm with no downsides or caveats.

I personally use a polar sense with my elemnt bolt. Weirdly, I prefer to wear it around my ankle, under my socks :)