But in terms of light switches, specifically - is there not a simpler way to turn lights on and off while keeping the physical wall switches as the fundamental source of truth?
I’m thinking of a traditional physical switch that has been enhanced with an electromagnetic component that can actually physically flip that switch. A separate control line from each switch in the house goes to a separate controlling computer in the basement. This computer can then interface with Bluetooth remotes or apps on smartphones or anything else that is needed, including having its own internal scheduler for turning lights on or off, or connected to ambient light sensors near windows that could trigger threshold settings to do the same.
That way, no matter how you set up your basement controller, you can always go over to the wall and turn the lights on or off if you need so. And if you are going to bed, bringing up the app can tell you if you’ve left the garage lights on, so you can remotely turn them off.
And when you remotely turn these switches on or off, the in-wall light switch will actually be physically moved to its desired position via the electromagnet being triggered.
Granted, this is something that is really only doable during a new build or a frame-off rebuild of a home (I’m doing the latter and would love to implement this idea), but the point being: this would be a largely obsolescence-proof, dummy-proof and robust/reliable way of automating a home while leaving the physical switches themselves as the ultimate source of truth: flipping the physical switch will _always_ do what is expected it will do, and the switch will always be in the position expected for the light’s current state.