It's funny that you picked a thermostat as an example, because in my experience the old pre-wifi Honeywell thermostats that many new apartment buildings had for

It's funny that you picked a thermostat as an example, because in my experience the old pre-wifi Honeywell thermostats that many new apartment buildings had for the last 10-20 years (and most hotels still have today) were the pinnacle of horrible UX. The most popular consumer smart home brands today, like Ring and Nest, are mostly a huge step up from the early-2000's precursors to smart devices. And the worst smart devices I have used in recent years are from the brands like GE that just threw wi-fi into these old clumsy confusing interfaces, which it sounds like is what your thermostat is. The genius of Nest in my opinion was the UX improvement of having one big number in the middle showing the set temperature, you can always see what it's set at and just turn left or right to change it. Basically going back to the same UX of those 1960's era thermostats that you're talking about, but with extra options like remote access available if you want them. In terms of thermostat UX I now have the best of both worlds, I love the simplicity and I also love being able to change the temp without getting up from the couch, plus the "eco mode when away from home" feature has generally been rock solid for me and saves money while reducing emissions.