When Sunset talks about "the hottest climates," they're referring to places like Phoenix, Arizona, or the Mojave Desert.
Sunset's hottest climate zones.
Santa Rosa, on the border between Sunset climate zones 14 and 15, isn't what Sunset means by the "hottest" climates. I think you'd be OK to plant the rugosas.
I've struggled vs. pyracantha, and the mess the birds make in December/January around here when the berries are ripe is unbelievable. It's like having a plum tree drop fruit on the sidewalk, except that the birds do *not* confine their--ah--discharges to the sidewalk. When the birds eat a surfeit of berries, they act as if they're drunk. Their sense of orientation goes away. They fly into the walls of houses (not glass windows--exterior walls). They fly into cars. They--ah--throw up. They...hm...make a mess.
We had a pyracantha in Berkeley. 17 years I struggled with that thing. We couldn't take it completely out, because it blocked a gap between a retaining wall and our fence.

So I dealt with "pyracantha berry bird mess" for a l-o-n-g time.
No info here on Mahonia; I have no experience with it that I know of.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9