Had no experience at all with home automation and started with HA 0.98 (Feb 2020).
Prior to that I only had one of these RF remotes with 3 power plugs but didn’t want to have different, separated stuff with different apps so HA was the real introduction.
Having read about the other home automation projects I knew that HA would be the best choice for me and I have to say: I’m REALLY enthusiastic about it as well surprised all the time of it’s possibilities.

Yes, that picture of the Belgian Malinois in my profile is 1 of the dogs here.