Part of the problem is that Free Software doesn’t have a marketing department. For example, go to a Home Depot or whatever and go look at all the “smart home” stuff. Zero – literally zero! – of the products being sold will list compatibility with Home Assistant (including the ones that actually can be made to work with it), even though that’s the only non-exploitative smart home system.

So how are these people supposed to learn, unless they’re nerds who proactively seek the info out (which the vast majority people are not and never will be)?

It’s a goddamn clusterfucktastrophe.