First, most locks work with batteries and notify well in advance about low battery, they also come with a old fashined physical keys, so in case it dies, you can still use the key instead of your access code. Second, they work without internet, you need internet only if you want to be able to add/remove access codes remotely while not physical present.

About finding smart locks dystopian, I feel like a lock that notifies lock/unlock is far better than say a device like nest cam/door bell with abilities to capture video/pictures and for whatever reason are more widely accepted than smart locks.

Unless it's a short term rental place where that makes more sense and your paying for the internet bill, don't put smart locks. It feels like mandatory surveillance cameras that you have no control over and your creepy landlord can look at any time. It doesn't matter if I can look too. Tenant changes should ideally be once every few years, so to optimize for a once every few year event feels like false economy.

People want the landlord to implicitly need the tenant to do things in order to enter their private house, or to otherwise to leave physical evidence via a break & entering if they did so. A smart lock can very easily remove all evidence that the landlord entered your house without you knowing, and that feels violating.

Basically anything that could be used by some creepy panty sniffing pervert to help them be a more effective creepy pervert, don't put that on your units. Smart locks help this hypothetical person.

> About finding smart locks dystopian, I feel like a lock that notifies lock/unlock is far better than say a device like nest cam/door bell with abilities to capture video/pictures and for whatever reason are more widely accepted than smart locks.

You're missing the big difference here. A Ring doorbell is both trivial to remove when someone moves out, and generally under the control of the tenant. Smart locks are neither.