Matter promised one app for every smart home, but only Home Assistant actually delivered it for me

When Matter launched in 2022, the pitch I heard was simple: buy anything with the logo and run it all from whichever app you already use. I bought in, mostly because my phone's smart home folder was a graveyard of manufacturer apps I opened twice a year. Four years on, the logo part works, and I can pair a Matter-over-Thread device with almost anything I own.