Countries with heavy investment in wind and solar are seeing periods of free or negative cost electricity. Ideally, batteries would soak this up for use during peak hours, but smart appliances can be a great way to take advantage. It's a shame that these companies cannot be trusted with our data!

Could do all that with dumb timers. Funny thing is, the optimal way to run my A/C is simply a consistent temperature 24/7, so my dumb old thermostat is set to that (but it also has a timer if I want).

It's true with basically all technology these days. We have a lot of cool and useful technology, but every company who will sell it to you has designed it so that the device you paid for is also being used by them to screw you over.