I'm a little versed in the n8n part. The "AI stuff" in not mandatory, you should be able to adapt an existing workflow (or create a new one better adjusted to your need) with no ai.
But I think most people add AI to this kind of workflows because Mastodon and Bluesky do not have the same demographics and post expectations so you need to change the post to adapt to those expectations (and AI can help automate this part).
Please tell me the family won't have to pay for it... ?