This feels like a reason to buy the device to me? I would want to block all of the data going to the cloud and would only want operations happening locally. But the MQTT broadcast then allows me to create a local only integration in Home Assistant with all of the data.

What's the real risk profile? Robbers can see you are asleep instead of waiting until you aren't home?

I have not implemented MQTT automations myself, but it's there a way to encrypt them? That could be a nice to have