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This made me wonder, are there any mechanical switches that can be switched by a smart something? As in, a regular switch where the user always has mechanical control, even when the smart system is down, but that optionally can be switched by a smart sytem, state reading is optional.
If my brief research for HA sometimes ago is correct many popular brand have it, at least for electrical switches like lamp, also garage door opener conversion but the few I watched looked like a pain to set up.
People connect their thermostat to the internet?
Yes, so they can change it while they are away from home ... for some reason.
Because it takes time for an air conditioner to cool down the place, and it wastes energy to keep it running for 8 hours while you're at work.
Mine has a simple program that adjusts based on a few times per day (overnight, during the day, evening). I don't need to control it from my phone while away from home.
I work in IT and I've got most of those things.
But it is largely due to the inconvenience of installation relative to just coasting on existing home infrastructure. I also don't bother with roof solar and home battery backups, a household wide firewall, or anything connected to a raspberry pi. Just implemented Jellyfin over Christmas and my wife regularly throws up her hands at it, preferring Amazon Prime or HBO Max at every opportunity.
For the most part, the cost of an individualized IT component isn't worth the pain of support. If I was looking for an apartment or a condo, I would absolutely be interested in their building wide IT setup. But the whole point of IT is to deliver at scale. Homelabing can be a fun hobby but it's a shit-pay second job.