Same story here. Everything goes through MQTT, and a single python script has my automation logic. All redeployable via Docker Compose. I never need to worry about updates breaking things, and there’s much less context for me to try to remember.
Home Assistant never “clicked” with me. It makes some hard things easy, but some easy things hard. I just don’t love YAML enough to write logic in config files…
I also hate that HA pushes you to run their whole OS. The docs usually assume you’re running HAOS.
I had some custom triggers I set up in Google Home to trigger streaming NPR on my Sonos. Every dang month I had to pick a new, more obscure trigger phrase because I’m guessing someone at Google would look at a list of phrases they couldn’t match and hardcode a new rule. And your trigger phrases couldn’t match any built-in triggers…
That was my thought, too, until I researched what a catastrophic event can cost and in the US it's a lot more than $1M!