Absolutely agree, I’m running 2 of them. There’s a blueprint that makes it really easy.

The tricky part is the initial wifi setup, at least with the app, might be different if you use the Python mentioned above. It just doesn't like some routers, it's 2.4ghz only, and from what I've read some routers do the 2.4ghz/5ghz thing differently, and my Asus is one of them. I don't have problems with other devices, but I had to use a phone set up as a wifi hotspot with my router ssid & password to set it up, otherwise it wouldn't complete the wifi setup, but YMMV.

Beyond that it's worked well, it's just kinda time consuming to learn every individual RF/IR signal you need from each remote. If you're familiar with home assistant the integration isn't hard to set up, just make sure if you look up videos about it to look at the most recent, the process has gotten a lot easier over the last few years.

For the cost I'd say its definitely worth giving a shot, RF plugs work great for holiday lights. I'm not an expert by any means, but I was able to make it work without too much hassle (other then figuring out the trick for the wifi setup) and its pretty neat.

The Broadlink RM4 Pro is a RF and IR blaster, and it integrates with home assistant. It can be a little tricky to get set up initially depending on your router, it doesn't always figure out the 2.4 ghz signal from certain brands (like the Asus I have apparently), but once its set up it works pretty well. The integration to home assistant is a little bit of a learning curve depending on how familiar you are with it, but it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure if it phones home is the only thing, I know they have an online app and ecosystem, but the home assistant integration is local.