To be fair...
...whether you love or loathe the idea (and we know which camp most commentards here fit into!), smart in the case of thermosats isn't just remote control.
It is also geofencing to turn it off or on when you are a certain distance from home, learning how long it takes for your home/room to heat to your desired temperature and adapting the schedule to cater for this, having TRV's that can call for heat on demand as opposed to just open or closed.
For people who are running on odd schedules, and/or that are away a lot for say work, they can be quite a useful thing to have and can lead to reduced bills.
For others, yeah - they are just a mechanism for laziness.