Congratulations on the 183! I hope you'll still drop in to post every once in a while, even if the images don't have "RICOH" in the FITS headers. (As you know the forum members tolerate me uploading a picture from time to time.)
Now, I can absolutely PROMISE you that the INDI drivers for the 183 work just fine. That's what I've been using for a couple years now with my 183MM and stock StellarMate. I used to have the occasional problem connecting my mount, until I got the manufacturer's bespoke USB-to-RS-232 adapter. And my Xagyl filter wheel would often be cranky, which is a big reason I replaced it with a ZWO. But the camera always comes up and works, first time. Always.
I mean, if you're sick of KStars and Ekos and want to do something else, sure, and Godspeed. But if you've already put in the time to learn them, you really don't need to switch.
Perhaps you already know this next bit. I dunno if you were using dark frames with your Ks or not; that Sony sensor has such wonderfully low thermal noise, and what there is, is very uniform. But you will absolutely need to use darks on the 183. The lovely part is that the cooler lets you shoot them whenever you want, instead of having to waste dark-sky time. I've found that unless I get the darks exactly like the lights in gain, time, and temperature, I wind up with residual amp glow. Maybe there's software I don't have that can do better dark scaling, but it's easier to just stick to the parameters for which I have a master dark, or make a new one before processing.
Here's a typical dark frame out of my camera. I don't have this screen shot annotated, but it's probably a two-minute exposure at unity gain, cooled to -10℃, which is my standard for RGB.
