[lelanthran]

> Because adding brains and storage to hardware is expensive.

I disagree with this; it's expensive if you need the device to support Python or C# or similar. A $5 esp32 chip has enough storage and RAM to both act as a controller for hundreds of devices, AND run a minimal webserver to provide an interface for the user to automate those devices.

> And people actually like controlling their hardware from out-of-the-home, which makes doing everything locally even more complicated.

I second this: people who want home automation also want the ability to control it from their cellphone anywhere in the world. Unless they are technically proficient enough to setup their own public-facing server that is on 24x7, the customer is almost always going to prefer the device that is connected to a proprietary vendor's cloud.