@GrantFromACK, of your four bullet points then we consider that (1) is by the far the greatest impediment to your efforts.
THS marketing has focussed on US, UK and to lesser extent Canada. There are listings in rest of world but relatively limited. Weblink below is a bit stale but shows %breakout of THS listings earlier this year. Negligible sits in geographies listed in (1).
While all things are possible then we’d not rely on THS increasing its marketing efforts in Galapagos. Mexico City sits so appear but probably go quickly - tough if you’re in a distant time zone or tardy in application.
Pragmatically, if you are really enthusiastic on housesitting in a geography in which THS has few, if any, listings then you may have no choice but to identify alternative platforms or tactics.
For context, we’ve completed housesits in 15 countries over last 2-3 years. But we’ve had to be adaptable, opportunistic and frankly creative at times.