And so a problem caused by having a more complicated than necessary system is mitigated by adding in another very complex system for redundancy.

Now this can work, indeed as a engineer in SaaS, it's my job to make it work. But see how to make it work you have to hire engineers to nurse the all those systems along.

That's the situation for pretty much everyone in northern states. A generator that's wired in with propane tanks is a pretty significant expense and I'm still not sure how reliable it all is if no one is at home.