.. " .. the bullshit about saving money, being more economical, is really annoying. If people want/need to use less they know how, and it doesn't take a smart meter to tell them..."
I find my smart meter very useful. I have solar + battery storage + a low cost nightly tariff (used to charge the batteries). The smart meter lets me monitor consumption in real time so I can see if I'm dipping in to the grid at peak rate times so can balance kettle/oven/heaters/whatever if necessary (target is: Usage Now=0 on the smart meter)
[ .. per another current thread I have ESP32s/ESP8266s monitoring water temperature, humidity, solar and battery inverters, and more, all feeding a Raspberry Pi running an MQTT broker and displaying via another ESP32 so I can see consumption and status across appliances.]
[ The OVO reference hit a nerve; I've just had a smart meter fitted to MIL's remote property because of the radio teleswitch service cutoff and they still haven't sorted the bills out after nearly two months]