But I can just walk to my oven and turn it on, which wasn't a real problem even when I lived in a huge house. What am I missing?

We really can’t force you to see the obvious if you’re set on not understanding something.

That's alright, I'm good. Smart ovens are pretty rare, so it seems like a lot of people don't get this.

> But I can walk to my oven and turn it on, which wasn't a real problem even when I lived in a huge house.

Rushing to get out the door, "Honey, did we turn off the stove?" Presumably you can then check with your phone.

People with internet controlled ovens turn them on before arriving home to shorten the time it takes to get dinner on the table.

In my case, being able to start it heating when I'm ten minutes away from home, so that I can get the kids fed ten minutes sooner.

Ok, that makes sense.

A timer to turn on an oven has been a thing for 25 years or more, probably there were clockwork ones before that. So it is down to very fine control on timing, or not turning the oven on, say, if you're in a traffic jam.

I'd expect the network connection to go down and the oven not to turn on at least as often as 10 minute makes an operable difference.

Maybe you don't decide at the start of your day, rather it comes up later that the kids want something baked for dinner that is already prepared and just needs to go into the oven, and you also get home from work at like 7pm. Idk how niche that is, but if that's someone's situation, the remote control makes sense.

Yup. Or the buses and the queues at childcare pickup and the speed of walking home with a 3 and 5 year old means that arrival times at home vary dramatically.