Apple's new HomeView looks like a nice piece of hardware, but I'm trying to figure out where it fits in a real smart home setup.

For $299, you get a 7-inch display, Siri AI, facial recognition for different household members, camera feeds, Matter support, and controls for connected devices.

The shared family calendar and personalized controls seem useful. But people have been building similar dashboards with old iPads, Home Assistant, and other displays for years.

I wonder whether the real selling point is convenience rather than functionality.

For people who already have a smart home setup, would you actually replace your current dashboard with something like HomeView?

Or is this mostly a product for people who haven't built a smart home yet?