I’ve been looking into this a bit more and it seems there are several alternatives. Some of them I have tried and I have to say I’m overall a bit disappointed. Hoping some power users can bring us back on track.
Emulated Hue component: Biggest issue is that HASS does not always start if the component is enabled (about 50% of the time). When it works, it works quite well, especially for lights/switches. I have not found a way to do anything else but switches & lights
HA-Bridge: Very stable and also gives you the ability to link with Vera and Harmony hub (which I have both). You need to install it on your system. Instructions that worked for me are here: Emulated Hue problems. @jbardi was mentioning he also had the dimming working and even was using this to fake his thermostat. However i have not been able to do this and hoping someone can explain me how to do this in HA-Bridge
Haaska: Detail are here: https://github.com/auchter/haaska and Bruh made a video about it. However I cannot see the benefit over HA-bridge as -at first sight- it does not seem to bring any benefit over HA-Bridge. If anyone can explain , please do so.
Build in Alexa component: All info I can find about this one is here . This seems to offer the most elaborate possibilities at first sight. I especially like the fact that Alexa can actually give you meaningful info back instead of just executing a command. However I’m a bit overwhelmed by the stuff that needs to be done to get it working.
It also seems that most of these methods can actually live together (increasing functionality but also complexity…)