WTH are there no variables, forcing me to use input helpers (exposed on the UI)

Month of "What the heck?!"
1

I want to keep some state in a variable. The only way I can do this in HA is by creating an input helper and using that as my variable. However, helpers are exposed on the UI and I don’t always want or need that.

3

Duplicate, this is one of many variables requests → WTH are there no Variable Entities in HA?