> Apple used to sell a box, their "Time Capsule", which was a home server. But Apple discontinued that

Because no one is interesting in running their own server.

> Apple became so cloud-oriented that their thermostat has to contact an external server to get the outside temperature

Apple doesn't make a thermostat but they, along with many others, are moving to Matter. An interoperable, secure, private, open standard i.e. the very opposite of being cloud orientated.