The fun part to me is making janky diy things that no company would make, and also just knowing your stuff doesn’t spy on you. I’m not sure if they are definitively more secure than wifi devices, but I also like my home automation crap to not make pages and pages of ip leases on my router and have them accessible to anyone with a wifi device or for them to be able to access my network.

There are a lot of things you can do with ha gadgets in general too. My current project is repair and redesign of my automated bird room. In the morning it slowly opens the curtains and dimmer fades the full spectrum bird lamps and room light on, and in reverse at night. There is also a thermometer that is used to set a generic space heater with a smart plug to maintain optimal bird comfort temps. The curtain rail system is being reworked to cover the windows better and there is a second heater elsewhere I am gradually testing a control board replacement to have direct control over zigbee. I am also looking at air quality monitoring and a bird exit alert system to track when my pigeon breaks out.