Whilst I agree a smart home offers some benefits that your 1884 switch simply cannot match. And the cruicial point is that the 30 seconds are the worst case situation where something went wrong on the network. Its not the usual operational experience you'll get.

For me, having to wait 30 seconds once every blue moon is a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

Buttons etc. have direct binding. So even if your hub goes up in flames those will just keep working.

The automated stuff like "starting at sunrise gradually adjust the lights" might be delayed by 30 seconds. Annoying but hardly rage inducing.

Not exactly a strong argument if you need like 5 qualifications to demonstrate the issue. If the right node fails, if it happens right as you walk up, if it's raining, if your porch is uncovered, if your door doesn't have an immediate fallback... I'm sure someone will be affected because of the law of large numbers, but it seems like an unlikely scenario to base a purchasing decision on.