wnpublic

Welcome.  The integration is not dodgy, it is quite stable and works well for lights, but it does seem to have a target on its back for at least one apparent employee of C4. You will find that discussion here beginning on page 4 or so  
Why?  Seemingly because they are devoting time to swatting gnats (an unofficial integration used by like 70 people) rather than fixing the big problems. 
 
Now, on to your larger post. Getting HE is a good idea to see if it does what you need (you will probably hate the interface and programming model unless you just travelled here from 1998).  Any dealer can get you the license key for $150 I think. But if it works for you, your plan will be good as long as the HA integration remains. If it goes away you have at least two options:  
1. Strip out the c4 switches. Unless you have panelized lighting, there’s no wiring, its all zigbee proprietary wireless.  You can just remove them and replace with whatever open solution you want. Since you didn’t pay for the initial cost, but just took it with the house, you don’t really have a sunk cost problem. You can do what you want. 
2.  I believe there is a driver based C4 solution to integrate with HA from berto but it requires some mqtt setup.  I haven’t investigated that closely. 
 
Your plan sounds good to me. It’s what I’ve done, mostly. I’ve been very happy with it. 

Well he has renamed himself “defunct”, so probably figured out he made a misstep. 

honestly if all your doing is streaming, i would just put 4k apple tv behind each tv. would save thousands, less probability for issues, and then you can invest that saved money in more advancements of the system

These are missing the point. The lower end of my profession is incompetent too. The point is that there are dozens of other firms that are competent; competency isn’t “special” and commands no premium.  So fungible 90% of the time. Same in this field. 

I can tell you've not hired a personal chef, because that is nothing like having home automation and infrastructure installed and configured/maintained.  I don't mean to be insulting, it is true of my profession too - but home automation dealers are largely fungible for 90% of customer needs.  Any one of dozens in a given metro area could do it.  So costs are a primary consideration and it is suitable for an RFP process.  Personal chef, not so much.

Disagree totally. so far, it has been very productive 
 
If I had a dealer who couldn’t handle a public review of their proposal, a relationship wouldn’t be considered. In addition, as you have noticed, I’m not putting any one on blast or naming names etc - this is more of a learning exercise
 
 
 
 
 

i agree with all this, which perhaps got lost in all the OSS discussion

This is ABSOLUTELY a thing. No denying it. But my point is that many of these clients would use a series of non-interacting products or sandbox systems before embracing (or having it embraced on their behalf by an adventurous programmer) an open-source system. 
And I think it's these little "game of thrones" style alliances that pose a more compelling threat. It's easier for someone to say that they just don't need a thermostat to talk to a music system than it is to find someone willing to set up a Raspberry Pi to make them do it. 
If you take one of our systems today versus one from five years ago you'll absolutely see a shift toward robust sub-systems and away from an all Control4 type solution.
To be clear, playing for the home team means I likely have 10x the complaints about Control4, can communicate them more precisely, and am more frustrated by them than you. After all it's my livelihood. But as I look out on the landscape I still feel Control4 is the best of breed and best positioned to evolve in a way that continues to show value to my clients and support my business. 
All this is to say that if Control4 crashes and burns it won't have anything to do with HomeKit or Home Assistant or IFTTT or whatever else is out there. It'll be because Lutron and Sonos work together.

Nice lashing out.  Someone is, as the kids say, b$%%hurt.

This is less frightening than your apparent previous authority, if authorized, to have parts of people banned from the ecosystem.  Now it's entire people?  heavens to betsy.

If authorized, i can declare myself King of the world but I doubt ill get that authorization.

You said this in July, too, so see attached i guess.  This is another classic step in the crash cycle - swatting gnats (or promising to) while ignoring big problems.

lol. you arent going to do anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

His quote was:
"Anyone making an obsolescence argument against Control4 in favor of Home Assistant or open source platforms in general sounds like a cult member. It's a perfectly viable hobby, but I don't come from my woodcarving retreat and ponder aloud, "what are furniture stores going to do when this catches on!?"
He specifically mentioned open platforms. And like you said, Control4 can run on Windows. Home assistant could probably run on a Control4 controller as well.
My point is valid. You know you dont always have to side with dealers when they make stupid comments?
 
 

Something for you to consider - when people lash out, it's usually because they feel threatened. 

Touchscreens?

Doorstations
chime is better than DS2 but chime is still 2x the price of others.
but C4 is a different business model with a dealer involved vs direct to customer sales 

Hey hey - there is now a functional beta version with control for Home Assistant here:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/intellifire-wifi-fireplace-module-hearth-and-home/366883/82

Someone has gotten started.  I will see if i can listen in on the commands and try to add to this.
https://libraries.io/pypi/intellifire4py

Two cents from someone who is leaving C4 behind in the near future:  connect with a remote dealer such as the one posting here, they will help you get it up and running for not too much, assuming there is not some big problem that wasn't disclosed to you.  Spend the $150 to get Composer HE plus the remote access subscription.  Then play with it and see if the DIY capabilities are enough for you.  If not, there are options.  But what i've described is probably the cheapest way to find out what you want to do next.

Two cents from someone who is leaving C4 behind in the near future:  connect with a remote dealer such as the one posting here, they will help you get it up and running for not too much, assuming there is not some big problem that wasn't disclosed to you.  Spend the $150 to get Composer HE plus the remote access subscription.  Then play with it and see if the DIY capabilities are enough for you.  If not, there are options.  But what i've described is probably the cheapest way to find out what you want to do next.

Have your new network admin follow the same IP scheme thats already existing inside your network. There is very little else likely needed to “hook Control4 up to the new network”. That sentence in itself shows the dealers inept and out for profits. 

Don't know what to tell ya!  Bought one HikVision system with NVR and 3 cameras in 2016, Cameras lasted about 3 years before starting to give issues.  Bought the 1st NVR in 2016 and then that one crapped out completely in 2019.  Bought a replacement unit and it stopped working in August of last year.   Regardless of branding or not they don't always make good product from first person trials and usage here.

There is really some room for growth here.   Seems like a fairly easy feature to implement and something that would be welcomed by a vast majority of C4 users who have a family and want to provide some access to the system not based on the "trust system"