I agree they're overblowing it for comedy, but holy hell do I hate 'magic links'.
Have them as an option sure. But for everyone with a password manager they're multiple extra steps that make the sign in process clunkier.
If you have 2FA they're actively useless security theater.
Even without the FOMO, some people just want a working device.
It's why leasing cars is attractive to some. They don't care about the specs, they want one that works "well" and looks nice and are willing to give up nebulous "ownership"of a device that they don't know or care how it works, that they can't repair, so they can stop thinking about their choice and just always have a one available.
The number of people that click through to disable that prompt might surprise you.
Hell at least half of AI influences are trying to just run models blind with full file permissions.
If a modern high speed SD card is good enough for 60fps 4k done footage, or whatever they're shooting now, it's probably fast enough for whatever you're doing on your phone.
Which is why it's bad writing.
"Unblockable killing spell" is the kind of thing that pops up on a middle school playground because every kid wants to have the trump card in make-believe and the last kid just cast Meteor.
Eragon is a contemporary-ish book and has killing magic that can kill normies by the dozens/hundreds, but other magic users have to do more than play rock-paper-nuclear-option.
Thankfully this one is built of many redundant layers instead of just one layer of metal.
* Assuming there is no bug, zero-day, or other vulnerability on the current version of your fully updated device.
Having a power-only cable removes that as a possibility.
Disney is also actively arguing in court that if you use the free trial you can't sue them for anything. Ever.
So there's that to worry about now.
Perfect should not be the enemy of Good. Reforming the entire system is not something that just happens. It takes several steps in the right direction and you have to start somewhere.
Mostly I think its fine for all that.
But there's a special circle of hell for projects that rely on it for "documentation".
I get the temptation, I really do. But once you're taking money or have more than a couple people involved and semi-organized you really need at least a small wiki/git-hub landing page with the basics.
I know documentation is a separate skillset and a lot of work in its own right but projects can also stagnate and die because there isn't any.
It should be. But I would be extremely surprised if everything in the terms of service isn't worded something like "you're buying a license to view this content that can be revoked whenever".
The Honeywell ones are nice and simple and have instructions for whichever number of wires you already have. With stickers for easy labeling as your removing the old one. They have a few models for whichever network you prefer.
The different wires can be intimidating, but they're all standard colors. And your dumb thermostat is already wired with everything you need. The smart one mostly just adds a radio.
The wires are basically: power to the thermostat, ground, and a number of different signal wires for "AC on", "furnace on", etc that when the respective wire gets 5v(?) that device turns on.
Thermostats are very simple devices that just regulate when the high voltage devices should turn on. Things do get a bit more complicated if you have a bigger house with multiple HVAC zones and stuff but most people don't have those. And even if you do, that's mostly just more wires to connect that will already be there.