Interesting and well written post. I am a huge Google fanboy, and had I known Google was to acquire Revolve I would have suffered the same fate trusting in the Googleverse too much I suppose. I wanted a low cost entry into home automation and regretfully also trusted Costco and purchased an Insteon HUB, waiting for the home automation dust to settle before I get something more flexible and functional.

On a final note, I shop thrift stores and often find gems but more often find similar products that rely on services long since abandoned that create significant ewaste but for the few ingenious makers who can reporpose such old tech.

Reminds me of a a story I read last yer about a school district running Amiga to control the HVAC for the last 30 years. http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/14/amiga-controls-school-district-hvac/