USB 3.0 docking station reliability?

Hello,
Currently, I have Thinkpad docking TB4, but my diabolical cables setup ate all the USB ports, so I want to add another small docking that can give me an extra 3 USB ports or something and I have the following questions:

- Should it be connected to the laptop directly, or can it be connected to the ThinkPad docking?
- I only have a USB 3.0 port available; the TB4 port is reserved for the main docking. Is it sufficient for the upcoming small docking?
In the past, I had a simple docking station with only three USB ports for connecting my keyboard and mouse, but I sometimes experienced lag. Is it because the docking was cheap shit or this is normal behavior for some cases?