@UCEF I'd appreciate some insights into the differences between this and Permatters. Which one would you recommend
I'm using Perfmatters on one of my domains. And I just install this plugin on localhost for comparing because I'm curious like you.
I can easily say that if I tagged both plugins:
Perfmatters --> It's Focusing
Caching and Optimization (Includes minify with most popular tweaks)
Lighthouse --> It's Focusing Improve Performance and Security without Caching
I think that lighthouse appeal to more advanced users because it has a dashboard display all speed metrics such as TTFB DOM Load time, DNS lookup time, request time etc.
Also there have an "image compression" system within you dont need an external function.
And also you can track "queries" "
basicly for each page within dashboard which most critical to following page performance.
It also has security feature including fighting with spams but I havent test yet due to localhost installation. Also security including "Firewall" too.
Plus, the author explained tiny informations for each option such as what is this and why is need
Shortly, if you need "deep" cleaning with bloated scripts/styles etc then you can use "Lighthouse" but you need also a cache or you can just use Cloudflare which compatible with that.