I am a noob to home automation but I have a few Kasa light switches that I like. The Kasa switches connect via wifi and Google is able to interact with them. I am also interested in some smartblinds (maybe Smartwings) and I notice they REQUIRE a hub. I understand they are Zigbee over wifi. Why do some devices require a hub and others don’t?
Wifi only devices suck, so if it’s not thread you generally want zigbee which is going to need a hub.
Then some companies take that further and require their own proprietary hubs.