IKEA is not bad but I actually prefer (whitelabel) Tuya as long as those run on AA(A).

They might even be cheaper outside the US right now. Ironically thanks to their tariffs.

The post in the screenshot just screams incompetent boomer at me.

Yes

No HA*, no Zigbee, no containerized service landscape but the routers run OpenWRT. Hmm, Okay.

*other OSS contenders are fine.

For real! HA* & Zigbee or I seriously doubt the credibility of any „I work in IT“-claim.

*one of OSS contenders is fine.

It comes down to language structure and how similar they are. For example it’s easier for me to understand Dutch than Danish. Luxembourgish (recently recognized as separate language) to me is rural Hessian with some random French words thrown in - again easier than Dutch to me. For the German dialects you can use the same writing and it should be understood throughout Germany, Austria and most of Switzerland. Except for regionally used words like e.g. “leiwand” (Viennese for good/perfect). Another exception is if the writer is from Cologne - nobody understands their language.

Acshually briefly being governed by a certain french gentleman helped a lot more.

& er hat noch nie nen Schwaben getroffen? Wenn er mit Hessisch schon Probleme hat?