The UX of a physical switch whose position always accurately reflects the state of the circuit is hard to beat, and all the smart switches I've seen seem to use buttons or some other non-tactile solution that is significantly worse UX than a plain old switch.
Looks crazy when you have a big audio mixer full of these things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPXeULcDa5w
A little DIY one: https://i.imgur.com/GnEzaKl.mp4
Physical switches also have other UX benefits, such as having zero learning curve, and being easy to operate without looking at them. I've built up enough muscle memory at this point that I don't even have to think about toggling the light switch when I walk into a room in my own home; it's so automatic at this point that if I'm distracted I'll sometimes even forget there's another person in the room and flip off the lights on my way out the door.
These are all minor things obviously; but I still wish I didn't have to sacrifice them to get the benefits of a smart switch. I understand the desire to avoid moving parts; but surely a couple properly engineered solenoids wouldn't be that prone to failure.
A voice-coil motor like from a hard drive arm could work well: fast, quite, and could work like an analog dimmer in the middle positions.
I think if cost was no object, driven switches would be the ideal user interface. It’s basically what high end audio mixing boards use.
When you have a 200 Amp breaker, just running a cable from a load location to a convenient control location (and back) calls for: a) extra lengths of heavy wiring; and b) a lot of crowding and layout constraints in your control panel area.
Haven't read the article yet, but perhaps something could be said for e.g. British wiring practice, where last I heard lighting was commonly all run on one circuit. I imaging that could make for an easier wired network for control. By varying the bridge to such a wired lighting-control network, new wireless communications/controls could be accomodated.
Next step would be to add wireless connection to the logic controlling the relays.
Generally for protecting wiring you need circuit breakers which will operate without relying on software.
True, but modern houses commonly have a ton of 3-way switches with multiple switches for each light, so they rarely reflect state anyway. At least my Lutron switches and dimmers can show me status with the tiny LEDs...
Also an arc with little current behind it (because of the light bulb inline with the circuit), isn't going to get very hot.
This is fine for one switch, but it doesn’t scale to N switches. If you have more than one switch, you now have to synchronize the light state to all switches.
A better switch would have a spring loaded neutral position which you deflect towards the state you want. That way each switch is sending commands to the light, not trying to match its state.
Multi switch lights would benefit from this. That includes physical switches, as well as software ones.