Consume IP addresses? There are a bazillion IP addresses. Or are you stuck on IPv4?
The better argument would have been that using a /23 or /22 subnet should probably be enough for most home automation setups.
I like to know what's on my wifi network, and because my memory isn't what it's used to be, I find myself having to assign names to all the smart wifi devices in my Unifi controller.
Either way, it's still an additional step compared to Z-wave. Other than the hub, I don't need to set up an IP network for my Z-wave devices to connect to at all.
Unlike wifi devices, a zwave device can't just join my hub by knowing an SSID and password.
Yes, I could do something similar with a wifi network and whitelisting mac addresses etc, but that's not nearly as simple as the way z-wave works.
[addendum] When I talk about checking my network, I'm also not talking about status. With wifi, I'm checking to look for unexpected clients. I occasionally have a temporary freakout when I see an unknown device on my wifi that ended up being something that I bought, added and forgot about (like a media player), etc. That's not a concern I ever have with a z-wave network.
Not sure if this is what they’re referring to, but possible.