No need to say more.
The cost of these systems and the lack of features/control are both shocking. You can't configure anything on your own, you need a tech to come out to make the smallest change and they will try to upsell you. The contractor companies for control4 come and go and so even if you bought a upgrade ($10K+ price tag on a system not 4 years old) a few years ago, the new contractor wants to get paid somehow.
For the cost a relative spent on an upgrade I could have replaced all the smart tech in my house with the best (IMHO) and come in at well under that number.
Home Assistant still has some rough edges for non-tech people but it's amazing and I'd build a HA + Z-Wave/Zigbee system out of pocket before I'd accept a free Control4 system.
I asked them for 1/4th of that amount to buy hardware and do it myself. My philosophy when designing it, is that everything that is "smart" should have a non-smart backup. You can trigger the lights via an app or the tablet, but the switch on the wall also works. The garage can be opened remotely and automatically when the car approaches, but there's a physical radio remote that still does the job independently of the smart home system. You can set the blinds exactly at the level you want from the app, but the remote is always around if you need it. And so on.
The idea was that if the system goes down, everything should still work. But it also made me realise that the convenience of having both options is what my parents love the most. They mostly interact with things using the non-smart controls, but love to know that they can monitor and interact with these same things from anywhere.
Everything must fail back to "dumb", not "unavailable". Smart Switches are a huge QoL improvement IMHO and if Home Assistant goes down, you can still use everything like normal. Fans/lights should be voice/app controllable but also have wall/remote controls. Any guest in the house should be able to navigate it without knowing anything about the smart features. Progressive enhancement, if you will.
I never want my house to fall apart because HA is down.
Also, having the garage open/door unlock as you pull up feels like magic, and I never get tired of it. Especially paired with door sensors to auto-lock/close the door. I can pull up, have everything unlock, walk in, close the door, and have it lock behind me.
I also like motion lights, dimming late at night instead of full brightness, etc but those all "fail" back to just normal dimmable lights that I have to manually switch in the "worst case".