Yeah totally agree with you on the smart speaker and camera bit. My google home mini resides in an upper cabinet in the kitchen. You have to yell in its direction to get it to hear you. We mostly just use it to add items to our shopping list. It also connects to a Bluetooth speaker system (that doesn’t have a mic) to play music through.

The cameras I’m getting are just for the outside of my house and I’m planning on getting the (rtp?) feed off of them and self hosting.