Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud - Home Assistant
(www.home-assistant.io)
I think he's talking about having a bridge separate from home assistant vs using the zha integration. The former setup will let you control your lights when home assistant is down, the latter will not.
I just moved from the former to the latter and it's life changing lol. Added bonus of moving to z2m is binding devices directly to other devices inputs, like switches and motion sensors.