gnuplustoejam

Sounds like something Nest engineers would have said.

It's not "signal switching", you see.

HVAC equipment is as old and varied as you can imagine, and there is higher current than you think running through those terminals, powering all sorts of nasties, oil burner relays, damper motors, crude AC contactors causing voltage spikes etc. HVAC low voltage power is as dirty as can be.

No one took this into account, they were more concerned with making the thermostat pretty.

Early generation Nest hardware was garbage, and was known for blowing FETs that failed closed, turning people's ACs into giant ice cubes. Putting it in the landfill would be doing yourself a favor.

The ex-Apple culture in the early history of Nest was evident, which ostensibly spec'd FETs over mechanical relays for superficial reasons, because clicking sounds are ugly. The results were in the spirit of other Apple engineering marvels (Titanium Powerbook, Antennagate, Bendgate).

Running open-source firmware someone's hacking on (which gets little to no testing) on a gas appliance that can burn your house down is probably not the best idea.

If you are paranoid about Nest being evil maybe stick to one of those Honeywell round hockey-puck things with the mercury inside.

Or use a Z-Wave/Zigbee thermostat from a reputable vendor (there aren't many) and control it from a gateway of your choice.

Melodramatic + use of profanity generally indicates an appeal to emotion rather than a rational well-thought out statement. A rant about the CEO is not on topic.