Representing controls as individual devices

[tom_l]

No problem. Best to avoid devices altogether.

What happens if I have to replace a device

It’s a big problem that you can avoid by not using device triggers, conditions or actions. There are always other triggers conditions and actions you can use instead. e.g. instead of a device turn on trigger use a state trigger. If you only ever use entity_ids in your triggers, conditions and actions then when you have to replace the device you can change the new entity id to match the old one in one place and all your automations keep working. If you use device ids you have to change all of …