[zamalek]

This is a double-edged sword.

Zigbee's issue was that anyone could make devices and modify the protocol. Tons of devices are vendor-locked to their first-party hub. Philips attempted to do this recently with a firmware update and only backed off due to extremely bad PR.

Z-Wave has the same "problem" as Matter. You have to pay the consortium per product. Part of that what that pays for is testing, and cross-vendor compatibility is mandatory. As a consumer you are guaranteed that a Z-Wave device will work with any hub (and therefore Home Assistant/completely locally). You own Z-Wave devices.

I ran both in my old home, and used Zigbee devices where possible (Z-Wave devices are often more expensive).

I would much rather have it the way of Z-Wave and Matter. It is the lesser of two evils.