This looks real interesting. I presume you are using an Ethernet interface through the micro USB for inter node communications. Can you provide information about power requirements?
The big black squares near the ethernet connectors are the ones.... The pi zero has only one USB port. So to have "USB" (front of the device, on the right in the picture) and ethernet (back of the device, on the left in the picture) you need a hub, so the integrated hub with lan of the lan9502 is a very sensible option. Moreover, that chip is supported in every raspberry pi OS for obvious (I hope) reasons.
