Why does a car need a radio? Why does a cell phone need "candy crush"? Why does your TV need a remote? None of these things are necessary, 99% of them aren't "

Why does a car need a radio? Why does a cell phone need "candy crush"? Why does your TV need a remote? None of these things are necessary, 99% of them aren't "need to haves", but they are "nice to haves". I've gone down the "home automation" path, and i'm currently about $600 in and with that i've got most of the light switches in my house connected, as well as my thermostat and stuff like door locks and the garage door to the house. So keep in mind that I have a bias here. Individually there is no one thing that is "worth it", but together it all adds up to a nicer life to me. Being able to turn all the lights out after i've gotten comfy in bed, being able to make sure the door is locked after i took in groceries, turning on the porch light for the delivery guy, or even checking to make sure the garage door wasn't opened when our car was broken into a few weeks ago. Nobody wants a "Fridge that needs gmail passwords", but they want a fridge that can show your calendar. A fridge that can message you when you run out of something, a fridge that can show some photos from an album on your google account, or can send usage reports to your email on how much power it's using, or show you the weather or even the news. Now there are much better ways to implement all of that than just storing the gmail password and using it, but less technical people don't know that. Don't conflate the users' want of features with them wanting the security flaws as well. Now I still don't think any refrigerators on the market have reached the point where it's worth the extra money for the "smart features" (at least as of a year ago when i was looking for a new fridge), but I feel it's close. After all, a refrigerator is a large appliance very in-view in the middle of your kitchen. People have put things on them for years with magnets and tape, it's a prime location for a touchscreen that can control not only the fridge, but can show and control other parts of your life/home. IMO it's a perfect location for something like a screen, and a pretty logical extension of what people have been using that space for already for years. But to be honest I want other appliances to be "connected" first. Namely the dishwasher, and the clothes washer and dryer. Being able to schedule those, send alerts when they are done, to have the dishwasher determine if it's full enough to run now, or if it should wait, etc... Those are the things i'm looking for.