Early in my Army bandsman career, the band I was stationed at (18th Army Band at Ft. Devens, MA) had very few trumpet players, and those that were there traveled extensively throughout New England playing bugle jobs.
December 1978 and the band's "block leave" time frame came. The trumpet players needed a much deserved break, so I volunteered to play whatever bugle jobs came up while they were on leave.
I wound up playing two of them. The first was for a veteran who had passed on and the second was for an active duty soldier killed in a car accident.
I didn't have a bugle. I had signed out a Bb trumpet, and as I was/am a dedicated low brass player (meaning lots of air at slower speeds), I had to build chop strength for that horn, which I began building in November.
The first gig - outdoors in the cold/snow - went well. I actually managed to play Taps in Bb - the normal key. But still I struggled with the top G. So for the second gig, which occurred inside the Post Chapel, I had to use a mute and stick the bell of my horn out of the door to keep from blasting the walls down.
I played a couple more gigs on 3rd trumpet, but I was terrible at it and went back to euph/trombone for the rest of my career.
Be that as it may, a bugle in G - pitched a minor 3rd below Bb - would be a little less difficult than playing Taps in Bb. Then one could, of course with a valved instrument, play Taps in F by using 1-3 rather than the open horn. That's easier still.
It sounds to me like you've got the right vision in terms of the solemnity of the occasion, and Dave nailed it when he said the key thing for the bugler is to be unobtrusive. It isn't the bugler that's the center of attention, it's the memory of the veteran who has passed on.
U.S. Army, Retired (built mid-1950s)
Adams E2 Euph (built 2017)
Boosey & Co. Imperial Euph (built 1941)
Edwards B454 Bass Trombone (built 2012)
Boosey & Hawkes Imperial Eb tuba (built 1958)
Kanstul 33-T lBBb tuba (built 2010)