At the $10 price point? Z-wave stuff always seems to cost more, and my understanding is that is largely due to the requirements for compatibility and testing per Z-wave alliance. I'd be shocked if this same thing could even be made at reasonable margins for $10.

The flip side to this, is Zigbee stuff always has a lot of little quirks, problems, or bugs. There's literally an entire module/database for ZHA (Zigbee Home Assistant addon) called ZHA Quirks that's designed to work around all the little issues with various devices.

I don't agree. I was an early adopter and I still have some Z-Wave devices, but I won't miss them when they're gone. Pairing is a hassle, unpairing just as bad or worse, and licensing costs mean the devices themselves are always more expensive. My USB dongle for Home Assistant supports both Z-Wave and Zigbee, and as I add new devices and upgrade old ones over time, I'm not buying any new Z-Wave.

I prefer zwave as well. As long as you have repeaters (pretty much any light switch) and a good hub (zwave js ui NOT the default one) you will be fine. I run about 20 nodes right now and upgrading to zwave js ui over the default fixed my node graph so everything had a good signal. I do want to see more thread around

Meh, I have som Z-wave switches in the house (some in-wall rockers, some wall-wart smart plugs) and the experience has been mixed. Flaky switches (GE-branded), flaky firmware (SmartThings hub), etc.

I'll be happy when/if Thread becomes the norm and I can just run everything through Apple HomeKit. Though for some reason, I still don't see a Thread in-wall dimmer available, which seems crazy to me.