I have done lots of research on home automation (by moving into a new home) and I have derived two conclusions about HomeKit:

1. Apple's HomeKit strategy remains best in class

Apple's approach is to distribute home automation control and hub over existing devices you already have in your home, rather than spending money on dedicated devices that are unnecessary and virtually ineffective. Ideally, home automation could be centralized on a home desktop (Apple TV) or tablet (iPad) and controlled / opened further via a mobile phone (iPhone) or Apple Watch (which I think is the best home automation controller!)

I think this strategy is far better than the competition (Amazon / Google), which expects you to buy dedicated hubs that only serve to provide automation, but don't do much else. Personally, I never understood the use of a smart speaker for example - why not just command Siri from an iPad, iPhone or Apple Watch? Apple seems to get this.
Even HomePod was focused on sound first - it was never meant to be a smart speaker and therefore adapted to this strategy.

But at the same time..

2. Apple's performance of HomeKit remains deeply flawed

A good strategy can only get you that far - you still have to do it and Apple has failed on all fronts. Early hardware requirements (which have since gone away) for HomeKit compatibility have limited the number of HomeKit devices available on the market.

Even though the iPad sales continue to fall, Apple has failed to place iPad as the ultimate alternative to getting a Google Home Max or other device. Seriously - why get a dedicated home automation device that only controls your home when you can use a multi-function tablet that can do so much more? Apple fails to recognize that iPad is perhaps the best smart home market available on the market.

Apple has not created the necessary knowledge base within their retail network to support HomeKit. Just today I had an Apple employee a simple question about which doorbells are compatible with the HomeKit - the employee told me to visit the individual manufacturer sites for details - not a good answer! Apple could dramatically improve this by setting up an independent set of "Apple Home" specialized stores dedicated to the sales and installation of home automation - but they don't seem to take it as seriously as Google / Amazon.

I really feel that if Apple is just making bigger efforts and resources behind HomeKit, they could have a much better implementation of home automation. As it stands right now, I would desperately love to go with HomeKit solutions for my home, but I continue to find gaps in the availability of quality devices, and continue to find myself for competing devices (ie, second-hand thermostats, camcorders etc.) As a solution, though they will never support HomeKit.

So I still have questions .. so many questions ..

1. Cloud vs. Local Storage for Video - I look at this thread and many other discussions on cloud storage and a desire to move to local storage. But local to me just seems like a very resource-intensive exercise as you constantly have to manage home security video feed manually at your time. If there ever was a practical application for cloud storage, I feel that home security video footage is it .. but why is there such a pushback against it? Is it cost? Protection of personal information? Bandwidth? Are these really dealbreakers against the time to manually manage and delete recordings on a monthly basis?

2. Control4 vs. HomeKit - I'm still trying to understand the differences between a "legacy" home automation provider like Control4 - which seems very expensive to me - and HomeKit. Why pay thousands for a Control4 system when you can get affordable home automation through HomeKit? Are the advanced subroutines (which also have to be programmed at a price) on Control4 really worth it?

Sorry for a long post .. I had just as many thoughts to unpack here ... any comments ??