I mean we can only speak for our own bubbles.

I live in Tokyo and most of my friends (20s) have some kind of automation in their apartments, mostly using Alexa or Google Home. Again, just another bubble, but its not all Silicon Valley.

i live in canada.

Smart thermostats and smart doorbells do seem on the rise, but i have never met anyone who actually has a home assistant. But all the americans i know seem to have one

Not to mention home automation hardware and software is 99% unreliable bespoke crap.

Can confirm. My house is full of unreliable bespoke crap. Looking forward to a non-smart home next.

Are you sure you're not just in a Luddite bubble? Philips Hue was released in 2012, 11 years ago, and the smart lighting category is estimated at $12.7 billion for 2022. For sure the future is unevenly distributed, but pretending it's solely a Silicon Valley phenomenon, when Philips Hue didn't even originate from there (though it integrates with Apple which certainly does) seems like a mistake that a Luddite or someone without access to Wikipedia and a map might make.

Last time I was at IKEA, the majority of bulbs on shelves were smart. I wonder what portion only ever get used on dumb switches.