As a cyber security professional, I am of the belief there is always something to be gained from researching and analyzing a new device. Whether it be to document an emerging technology, improve one’s skill set, or simply because we can, there is virtually no reason not to investigate a device.
YoLink is the first (that I know of) to introduce Lora into an end product for the everyday consumer. This makes it very appealing for a number of reasons. For the majority of the market, YoLink’s offering will suffice. But there is a share of the market who may be under-served by their offering.
HA exists for this reason. Countless IOT devices, built by many manufacturers, each with their own half-baked ecosystem. Sure, the Phillips Hue devices work together, but without HA, good luck getting a Lutron Switch to play nicely.
Only in the last few years have we seen standards like Matter and HomeKit be implemented that allow inter-ecosystem integration. But even these standards are not a turn-key solution. Some manufacturers support Matter but not HomeKit, and some support HomeKit but not Matter. But HA supports both, thus bridging the gap even further.
Plenty of integrations started as cloud integrations and later became local integrations through the manufacturer opening up their product. And how many of those integrations were further improved by someone’s work?
A great anecdote on this point is the Emporia Vue 2 (and now 3). There is a perfectly capable cloud integration for the Emporia ecosystem (GitHub - magico13/ha-emporia-vue: Home Assistant Integration for Emporia Vue Energy Monitor). And yet, @flaviut, a security researcher, saw the value in a local integration using ESPHome (GitHub - emporia-vue-local/esphome: Custom component for ESPHome to add support for the Emporia Vue 2 energy monitor). Now we have two offerings, each with their own strengths.
Just because an integration already exists doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon.
And lastly, to quote your message from Jul 2024: “I have tight security and my router only gives internet access to devices through one connection which is a pool of 10 vpn tunnels (two VPN service providers, 5 tunnels each), each tunnel connecting to a different server on the internet which is located in a non nine-eyes country. The VPN’s are both headquartered in non nine-eyes countries as well.”
How will the new hub having a cellular model fit into your security model? Sure, they say the cellular service is only for backup communication with their server. And there may even be a switch in the app to toggle between cloud and local. But do you trust the word of a company who has fumbled on their promises and promotes a closed ecosystem?
I, personally, do not. I would rather someone research the device to ensure my data isn’t being exfilled over a channel I have no control over.