Redo the analogy and instead of a Nest promotional article comparing the Nest to other thermostats, compare to a nearly identical home improvement product like fiberglass insulation. After all, you're competing with every product on every shelf at Home Depot, not just smart thermostats, so this appears superficially fair. In more detailed analysis, its an even more fair apples to apples comparison.
The financials are similar although insulation pays off sooner and the capital expense is almost infinitely more flexible. The ease of use for insulation is off the charts compared to a Nest, you simply install it and keep it dry and watch the energy bill drop. The convenience factor for insulation compared to a Nest is also off the charts, insulation never requires firmware upgrades or wifi access and has a much longer useful lifetime than "typical electronic gadget" or even modern dumb thermostats.
Overall a batt of fiberglass insulation beats the nest on all specified marketing criteria. Yet, most homes could use more / better insulation despite insulation having been marketed for decades and the nest being a newcomer to the space. If you can't sell insulation to these people, you're never going to sell them a Nest using the same marketing message.
Marketing messages usually have little to do with the actual product, so a message that is unusually close to the facts of the product is statistically likely to be wrong.