Ask HN: Why is the state of “smart home” devices still so dire?

Article note: Because perverse incentives. The vendors aren't building devices for customers, they're building profit-seeking vessels for VCs and megacorps. If you build good devices, they need to work offline, without a subscription or external connectivity, and they need to freely interoperate over open standardized interfaces... and those conflict with the profit-taking misfeatures that attract funding.