Re: Just checking.
This is a perfect instance of someone who hasn't actually tried having a "connected" house, pretty much doing the same thing as people who complained that the automobile was pointless because their horse-and-cart did the same job.
I originally installed connected light switches because I wanted table lights and sconces on one side of the room to be controlled (on/dim/off) from a single position by the door. In the old days, I would have run separate power wires around the room, probably with atypical sockets (the old-school three-pin round plugs were the "go to" back in the day). It would have worked, and it would have been a royal PITA to do it.
However, more-or-less by accident I discovered that the brand that made the dimmer switches I was using _also_ have connected versions. So I bought the plug-in wall dimmer for my new lights, put the remote dimmer control alongside the main light dimmer, and... got everything I wanted without pulling a single new wire.
But it's a slippery slope.... I then realized I could put a remote in the car, and control the porch light as I drive home. And then I noticed that I could turn the downstairs main room lights off from upstairs... and the girlfriend decided she wanted lights that could be both daylight color temp and warm white, and she didn't have to have two sets of fixtures...
Yes, of course, as this article illustrates, there are issues of longevity to consider. Where possible, I've kept the controller local, so I'm not too dependent on cloud systems that don't have a direct funding stream associated with them. But that's the case with so many things: printers for which you can't get toner, vehicles with obsolete map systems, my wonderful Logitech Harmony remotes... at some stage, I know I'll have to change devices, but I have to change light bulbs too (although a lot less frequently!).
The one thing I'm completely avoiding are connected locks. I like those which have a short-range (BlueTooth, usually) mechanism for adding access codes with limitations (e.g. the pet sitter can come by during the day, but not after dark, etc). But the idea that a remote site can unlock my front door.... nah!