zlacker

As long as your 'connected' devices are bulbs going into normal sockets, you can always just fall back to the way you do it now. My Home Assistant is just kind of an appliance (running on a 10 year old mac mini), that I do essentially nothing to keep working. If I unplugged it, I'd just be back to where you are now.

That said, when I set up Home Assistant, it was not without the need for some hobbyist motivation, but it wasn't too bad. That was over a year ago, and I have only gone into it since then to add a couple extra lights and set up a Christmas mode.

As far as the 'why', I can put the light switches where I want them, and have them do exactly what I want. I don't use voice or phone control, I have physical switches, but they're just exactly where it makes sense. An example is that in my living room I have a switch remote on the coffee table that lets me turn on or off all lights in view (kitchen, hallway, living room) and two different light scenes for reading or watching TV.

To me, it's actually simpler than flipping the 5 or 6 switches I would have to otherwise.