I agree with you…but up to a point as everything depends on what you are trying to achieve. Personally I use Smartthings for 75% of my automations, so easy to set up and simple to modify on my phone, although I understand that everyone will have their own preferences here.
The problem comes when neither the devices are available or the protocols are common, which is where node-red comes into its own, and as far as I can see is the ideal tool for the IHost. Just an opinion.