Thanks for the feedback. I was finally able to reproduce the issue. It is indeed the doze mode which is preventing Hue Essentials making a network request.
The bug will be fixed in Hue Essentials version 1.14.5, which should be available in a few days. If you have the update, please re-enable the battery optimization (the default value) for Hue Essentials as it no longer needs to be disabled. Please let me know if all works fine after the update with battery optimization enabled.
This should also no longer be needed with version 1.14.5.