It seems clear there must have been a subspace component to the Hobus explosion,even if not explicitly stated.
I'd love the Trek lit to run with all the over-the-top technology, concepts and implications which are usually ignored. It wouldn't end up much like the Trek we know, but I'd definitely be along for the ride.
In STO, ships can be equipped with a red matter battery, which temporarily improves power levels during combat. Maybe red matter is much more mundane when tamed.
I don't personally don't consider game mechanics as lore. Just stuff in dialogue and such. Even though they do tend to put lore in the item descriptions.
It'd still be an in-universe action that the characters would carry out within the game's fictional story, though (swapping out a Red Matter battery), similar to directing your characters to swap out exhausted dilithium crystals in a 23rd Century-era game, for instance.
Eh, that means there are ships out there with several different weapon types on them. That's why I don't. Like, my Fed ship right now is running with all Cardassian weapons, but I don't imagine Starfleet would actually do that in universe.
My general approach to something like that is that these things could exist in universe, but they don't necessarily use them exactly how the game does. So in a situation like that, those kind of Cardassian weapons systems exist, but we probably wouldn't see them on Starfleet ships.
Spoiler: breen Perhaps the Breen decide after Hobus the time for a war against the Federation is now and then seek to seize the dominant position in the Typhon Pact. The Romulans are broken by the destruction of their homeworld and can't stop them. Perhaps Hobus will make the romulans more hostile to the federation, or perhaps what will happen is their "allies" will simply seek to take their position and invade the crippled RSE thus bringing the romulans into the federation's orbit. Anyway that's just my rambling-please don't take this as a story idea.
If you're worried enough to make that comment, then it's worth putting it in spoiler marks (which is one of the extra options under the "+" symbol, btw)