I keep Siri disabled on them because of small children, and I felt I got full value just from the audio quality and being a nice Airplay target.

But, I recognize that other people have little need for its audio quality, but really wanted a non-Alexa smart voice device, and it was dismaying for them to pay $350 for a household Siri device that was unreliable.

Like you said, since the OG HomePod came out, a lot more people know what Siri is and isn't good for, so expectations should be closer to HomePod 2nd gen's real-world performance. At least I hope so.