quite the opposite, for me at least, my defense post comes into play first, and defence bots after it.
To be honest, defense post doesn't help you almost anything, i haven't built defense post myself yet, people attack you all the time and it says that you "lose" bunch of materials but i have been keeping track of it and you don't actually lose any of it. I don't know if it's glitched or not but you don't lose a single zeronite or superglue during your lost fight. And i personally rather use those 3 room slots for something way more important than defense bot factory and defense post. So long story short, it takes 3 room slots but doesn't help you at all.
https://prnt.sc/ug0snj
As you can see, it says that i lost like over 100k zeronite just this morning and it actually didn't take any, it's been full the whole time, so yeah, defense post = waste of place. And you don't lose glory either on hideout fights so that makes it even less useful to have it inside.
As for the tips i have for yall:
1. If possible, buy the 2nd working robot (it saves A LOT of time, trust me, A LOOOT)
2. Upgrade Working Robot Unit and Brokerage Center so you don't have to coins for upgrades and all the upgrades last much less time)
3. Don't forget to do hideout fights every day as that way you get needed resources for future upgrades as well as daily rewards at 5/10/20 fights won.
4. Always have generator next to rooms that can be boosted by it (zeronite mine, superglue factory, lab of infinite knowledge, hideout base) (example: https://prnt.sc/ug0v82 )
5. Don't build Cybernetic Research Lab, Gym, Hero Forge rooms at low levels as it won't help you a lot, your base skills are not that high so that Cybernatic Lab boosts your skills a lot, Gym has a long wait time and your skill points cost very little at low levels so there is no need for that either, use that space for more important rooms and last for Hero Forge, as you level up fast you keep getting better and better items each level so having to wait long for an epic item that you're gonna be replacing within a day is not really the best thing to do in my opinion. Use that space for better rooms that are gonna help you improve yourself faster in the game.
6. Try to build 3rd row in hideout as soon as possible so you can fit all the important rooms (hideout base, generator, zeronite mine, superglue factory, working robot unit, brokerage center, attack o bot factory)
If you have any more questions, you can reply to this message and i am going to try and get back to you as soon as i can! Always open to help 