Agreed. I use Home Assistant to standardize across the various devices I have. I have a collection of misc. Hue bulbs, Tasmota-compatible plugs and other random

Agreed. I use Home Assistant to standardize across the various devices I have. I have a collection of misc. Hue bulbs, Tasmota-compatible plugs and other random devices. HA acts as a HomeKit bridge, meaning that as long as I get a thing working with HA, I can control it from my Apple ecosystem. Do I need it? No. But it's extremely helpful and still meets my goals around data ownership and no dependency on an Internet connection to turn off the lights before bed.