This feels like a reason to buy the device to me? I would want to block all of the data going to the cloud and would only want operations happening locally. But the MQTT broadcast then allows me to create a local only integration in Home Assistant with all of the data.

What's the real risk profile? Robbers can see you are asleep instead of waiting until you aren't home?

I have not implemented MQTT automations myself, but it's there a way to encrypt them? That could be a nice to have

Sounds like you cannot control which MQTT endpoint it is headed to? It just goes to the server of the device. Assuming you could modify the firmware, you could program it to send to a local MQTT.