I don’t intend to draw any wires, battery powered was a main request for me. Since i don’t have an option to hide them it would be ugly, so it’s a deal breaker for me - i already have too much of them around. Also, i’d have to buy/make a controller for them…
I wanted wifi ones, but they are pretty scarse, so i ended up with zb connection, and so far so good (fingers crossed).
But, that’s why there are both variants on the market. I like this, you like that, problem solved.
But, as you said, there’s absolutely need to do a research BEFORE buying anything. I did my part, so i ended up with sonoffs and connecting them was a matter of 1 minute. I do that for each new thing i buy: first i double-check if it’s HA compatible 
i did that before buying climate, air cleaner….
Wifi and battery powered isn’t a great match. WiFi typically uses a lot more battery. Zigbee needs a lot less power but if the TRVs are the only devices in your network you probably will have limited range, as they are endpoints, not routers. Usually you need a few mains powered ZigBee devices that can serve as routers in the mesh to get a well functioning ZigBee network. Lights or a smart plugs usually fulfill that role. If you live in a small house and your controller is located centrally you might get away with it.
In my house, the ZigBee network is at least as reliable as the WiFi.
Yeah, i guess that’s why it’s hard (if not impossible) to find wifi trv’s…
I do have battery powered wifi device, but it’s only window sensor (converted to “door unlocked” device), so it wakes up only when lock / unlock my door, and it’s powered by two AAA batteries, so it’s been a year now and still working.
Trv however constantly communicates with HA, so i can imagine (too) frequent battery changes.
Eurotronic Spirit Z-Wave TRV heats up in OFF mode - Hardware - Home Assistant Community
Another one…
To me the whole concept of motorized TRV is just a hack. Someone should re-engineer the whole design starting from traditional TRV (thermal actuator). If you make vacuum insulated bulb for the wax (and heating resistor) and latching mechanism (like latching push button has) for the piston, the thermal energy needed to actuate would be in line with the one needed for the motor.
I think you’ve made your point by now. You don’t like smart TRV’s and recommend wall-powered actuators. The arguments for that are valid and worth taking into consideration. But this kind of post doesn’t mean much. Most of the people that don’t have problems with a particular type of device don’t post about that on the forum, if there are many reports of problems this usually means there are many users. There are also tons of people that post about problems they have with smart bulbs, ESPhome devices, any type of smart device really.
I’ve not done the research but it is not my impression that a majority of people who report problems with TRV’s switch to dumb actuators or manual devices. That’s the real test.