@mpjgregoire I mostly don't really need or even want most home automation stuff (though I do have a Nest thermostat), but being able to have voice control for music and lights would be convenient. But, like you, I've lived fine without and it's honestly a fairly minor convenience that's not worth the privacy/security trade-off.
Similarly, I would never buy a baby monitor that needs to connect to the internet, as convenient as it might be to check in on my phone.