I don't understand why anyone would buy a home automation/smart-home device that can't work fully independent of "the cloud" (butt) with local management. If I can't talk to it over private IP space and run a local daemon/server on the same layer 2 ethernet fabric to manage it (eg: Unifi), I don't want it.

If I want to remotely access a camera or something like dropcam I am perfectly capable of VPNing in to my own home network to do so. I don't need the butt.