ā+1ā on this. Some people swear by it but dispite having a well meshed network (as evidenced by the mapping utilities posed in this forum) I found zWave to be incredibly laggy (+3 sec) and downright unreliable. I was using Aeotec branded devices.
Wifi switches like Sonoff (personal experience) or Shelly (no personal experience) are fast and reliable. You would be using them to only detect switch presses not to physically remove power to the bulbs (or HA loses contact with the lights). Just use HA automations to detect the switch condition and control the lights.
You can use your existing wall plates and switches.
Neutral wires are required fore these. They are required for most zwave switches too btw.
Most of the lights in my house are now Lifx. Love them.
I donāt bother with switches though. Mine are automated using presence (basically if the alarm is armed or not), outside light level, and motion (wired PIRs).
The lounge room lights (where I can sit still for longer than the PIR timeout) do not turn off with lack of motion but with an āin bedā sensor (or outside light level).
Watching movies changes the light scene in the lounge or cinema.
They dim between 10pm and midnight.
The doorbell pulses some lights purple.
I have a lamp that shows me my room temperature with colour (red through to blue) or if HA has an issue (fuchsia).
Sunset flashes one light green.
After a user set time (input date time) if the lights are off they come on a dim red to preserve night vision and allow me to get back to sleep easily (if I had to get up for something).
Bedside lamp is controlled with Siri or my iPad.
Basically I havenāt touched a light switch for a month. And the only reason for that was when I was moving HA from a Pi to a mini PC and all automations were unavailable. Fortunately, as you know, Lifx can still be activated with the normal light switch.
I also have a relay to detect resumption of power after an outage (HA is on a UPS that runs for +60min) and if it is daytime turn all the lights off (they come on after power loss).
Wow. Sorry. Got a bit carried away there. Main point: do you really need switches or can you (with a few extra sensors) automate light switches out of your life?