Just thinking outside the box here...send me $150 and I'll buy one in your name. 
Big envy eyes here... 
The Kool Aide pitcher and 24oz glasses are at the back of the room there...
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Think of it this way. There is a lot of neat stuff out there. Take locks. We have very limited options in terms of locks for either z-wave or zigbee. But as more locks come out they will be matter and have a lot of nifty features. Same with mm wave sensors, certain types of lights etc. I mean there is no reason to replace anything you currently have, but having matter opens things up even more for the types of devices that you can bring in.
Not really, no.
Example - if I have a zwave device today paired to Hubitat there is not really any LOCAL way today to use them in hubitat, alexa, and google home at the same time.
Cloud ways to do it? Sure. Local? Not really.
Whereas If it were a Matter device, regardless if it were paired to Alexa, Google Home, or any other Matter controller that supports it, I could use it in all Matter controllers I pair it to locally and at the same time.
Again, that might not matter to you. It may matter to others.
EDIT: And for bonus points... If Hubitat adds Matter bridge capability in the future, I could then use most of my zwave/zigbee devices LOCALLY in Alexa and Google Home too... No way to do that today at all.
So the future could add even more LOCAL options, which is a good thing.
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Thread is not only Matter and Matter is not only Thread. Thread devices existed before Matter as an alternative to other mesh networks. What Matter does, it takes Thread and Wi-Fi devices and makes them available on the local network to any Matter controller. Matter brings local processing to devices that historically required a cloud API. So more local devices from different places is a good thing, not a bad thing.
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The first thing I'm going to declare is my total ignorance of thread/matter. I've done very little research. Of the limited reading and poking about today, I believe I'm going to need another controller of some sort.
I then connect 'matter' devices to this controller. I then connect this controller to my C8 so that I have access to these devices. Is this the gist of it?
My next question is, what are these 'matter. controllers. In my reading people have mentioned Apple/Google etc. What Apple/Google devices?
Sorry if this is a really dumb set of questions but I really haven't researched this and have very limited knowledge about it.
Maybe this should be split to a separate thread, oops, topic of it's own to discuss the basics.
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I would start here. It explains most, if not all, of what you asked - including an example list of supported Matter Thread Border Routers (for Thread based Matter devices).
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Thanks. Oops. 
How did I miss that.
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Ok, interesting idea. But there would have to be some way to manage this. I have 6 Alexa devices in my house (and several more sitting in a box). It would not be practical to pair the 50 or so Inovelli switches I have to all 6 of those Alexas if it required 300 individual pairings (assuming I flashed the Inovellis to use Matter when that becomes available).
Also interesting, but that would likely require replacing all of the echo devices I'd think. If I say "Alexa turn on the dining room light", does any current Alexa device have the computing power to decipher and execute that locally? Execute sure, but local voice recognition and processing in a device at the price point Echos are sold at?
Nevertheless, I get what you're saying. No doubt there are future possibilities and it's great that HE supports if for no other reason then it shows they are keeping on top of emerging technologies.
There are no dumb questions. I am sure many share your concerns. In addition to what @JasonJoel shared, there is this Wiki I started a while ago that has details on how to connect (commission) Matter devices using the 4 most popular controllers: [Wiki] Connecting Matter devices to Hubitat Elevation
You almost nailed it. You connect a device to one of these controllers using the QR or setup code from the device, then you get a new key for that controller - a Matter setup code (11 digits) - and use that code to pair the device to Hubitat.
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Alexa devices pair to the account, not the individual Alexa device...
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By "local network" do you mean wifi? So a Matter/Thread device has 2 radios, one to communicate using Thread and another to make the device visible on a wifi network?
I didn't notice a mention of bridge support in the release announcement. Is that finished or still pending completion?
Ok, so if I pair a Matter device to a Matter-capable Alexa device, I'm not paring it to that local device but the (cloud) account?
If so, then the ability to control that Matter device is potentially pushed out to all other Matter-enabled Alexa devices on my account? Would have to be I assume, for local-only control of the Matter device (voice recognition issues notwithstanding).
Believe I saw that the Matter bridge was supported but that a driver hadn't been written yet.
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The hub supports bridges.. We don't have any built-in bridge drivers yet.. I'm finishing up the driver dev docs to release shortly so the community devs can jump in.. We just released a Matter sample driver on the public Hubitat github..
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Link to that driver:
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Thread Matter devices talk via thread to the Matter controller/fabric they are joined to.
Then a Thread Border Router would act as the man in the middle for other Matter controllers that are not on that thread fabric to communicate with the thread device.
So if you paired the thread Matter device to Alexa, any of the Alexas that are TBRs would be the man in the middle (Thread Border Router) to let external systems communicate/use the thread device on their thread fabric.
It's all shown graphically in this post. I recommend it:
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Thanks for all the responses and information that has been posted on this topic.
I think I have a grasp of how this works.
From a personal point of view, until I buy a device that has matter controller capability, there is no point in my looking into this.
The irony is, my wife often looks at upgrading our 'tech'. I tend to knock back if we don't need to upgrade. (My black and white TV works just fine on the 4 channels available on it).
I may have a route to follow here. 
Correct. Unless you have devices that support Matter there is nothing to do or see here.
If/when Hubitat supports bridge devices there may be more to do for some, as I expect some will have hubs/3rd party devices that will act as Matter bridges already that they can then use in Hubitat. But until then, it is Matter device only.
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You wouldn't really have to. Only to those you want it to. Now if hubitat were a matter bridge you could expose all non matter devices to another matter controller.
Why? Hue is also a matter bridge and can be paired to alexa or google or siri...
