Need? No, of course not. But it simplified an assortment of things and once Matter is more broadly adapted, seeing things up fully locally will be essential.

The big players are signaling that they are not making money on voice, so I’m expecting them to start charging or give up (typical Google answer).

A few of my use cases:

• Litter robot is in error or offline state for 30 minutes, toggle power
• Easing of light intensity and color as sun sets daily
• Vacuum when we’re gone and it’s between allowed hours.
• Return vacuum to hub when we return home
• Turn on lights so vacuum can "see"
• Improved environmental control because I have better presence detection using HA than Nest.
• Turn off power for cable box is conditions are net (otherwise it’s nightly updates and reboot illuminate the bedroom at 3 AM.