Yeah, but to use your analogies; when you find a brand/type of gas that causes problems or a type of filter that doesn't work for your needs you simply avoid them rather coming up with all sorts of workarounds to make them work.
Personally, I'm in favor of Hubitat's position on this.
Ha, i was just about to write up a whole thing about E85 vs unleaded.
Thanks everyone, very good info.
This is what concerns me as I have already been trying to have both a Zwave and Zigbee repeater in or near each room and garage. I have a few of the Iris plugs.
I will be getting an Xbee very soon, so between this an my other repeaters I should have a strong mesh.
As nice as those Xiaomi devices are, they may not be worth it if I have to replace all my repeating/routing devices.
I found this on the ST forum, need to look into it more, it’s not on the compatibility list.
Which is exactly what @mpoole32 is saying. If you decide to go the Xiaomi device path, you know it limits your devices you can use so you have to avoid non-Xiaomi compatible routing devices.
Just like when I bought all my cars with turbos, requiring premium unleaded, I know I can't just put in any gas (not technically true, but you get the idea)...
You are arguing the position that you should avoid the car that requires premium, he is arguing you can go that route knowing full well you have to buy special gas. 
No right or wrong on this. Caveat emptor.
My comment was really based on this portion of the post:
Apologies to @mpoole32 if misinterpreted but to me this sounds like he didn't agree with @chuck.schwer's comment about the devices not being officially supported.
Depends how many you have to replace, and how many sensors you ultimately want to install. At a savings of $20+ per sensor, it doesn't take many sensors to justify new repeaters/routers.
I have 10 xiaomi temp/humidity sensors (basically one in each room). It would have cost me an extra $300-450 to do that with Aeotec Multisensors, for instance. The 4 Ikea Tradfri outlets I bought for repeaters for $50 including shipping was a no brainer.
And I have a bunch more on order, making the savings even larger... Just waiting for the China Express to get here. lol
Nah, no worries at all. We're just having a healthy discussion, not an argument.
In the end it doesn't matter to me if they are officially supported or not, as long as Hubitat is willing to keep working with us (as far as reasonably possible) and doesn't intentionally break them. And they have certainly done that so far. 
I bought a second Hubitat hub to see what works and what does not. I'm looking at zigbee and how they repeat. I'm also looking at all Webcore and no RM or SL. And finally I'm looking at the possibility of throwing in the towel on Zwave.
Sometimes you just have to give up on what has been working if you want to make progress. If you look at what most people are writing about here in the HT community when it comes to support, you can see why I'm doing these test.
Key to the Hubitat organization is I bought the second hub just like I buy ethanol free gas and if you become to rigid with your platform there is no reason for me to recommend others buy this hub or that I buy additional hubs myself.
An Overstatement, i never mapped my mesh in any platform I have tried and one way or another all of them get to end up working. So I would not say this is a requirement by a long mile. That you need to be conscious where you place your sensors is anothet thing, and you need to do this to any sensor anyways.
I don't know people, I've bought a bunch of xiaomi stuff and a few tradfri repeaters. Both are inexpensive and everything is great! I don't see where this is difficult for users?! Unless you are already DEEP into another zigbee repeater brand?
And I've never touched an xbee and see no reason to
This is really up to HE to see where they aim to go. We know nothing about their business model.
One think is clear to me they need to have a clear vision of what they want and their customer base. If they want to be a hub for power users they are on their right to be.
If they want to be a Hub for the mass market than they need to develop to the mass market.
The mass market will not buy multiple hubs, it uses the cheapest sensors in the market and wants a plug and play installation (Will not care with mesh mapping), wants automation and control, not just automation so control for the user on a daily basis is key.
The customer market that you are aiming will dictate the pace and direction of your R&D
And this is not related to just HA it is related to any product that you place on the market.
Hence this is why sometimes you need to hold off on launching disruptive products in the market. The market is not yet ready for those products. So you end up launching a sub standard product that the market can accept.
I don’t think someone should have to worry about sticking to one brand or another. That sorta limits you on the devices and types of devices you can have.
There is more than one that's just the one I chose for price and ease.
Both are inexpensive.... Big difference and as long as those Xiaomi devices continue working then inexpensive is best way to describe them.
This on the other hand is a cheap piece of crap. How the battery drawer slides in and out. The metal contacts and the contact between the button and the battery. All pieces of crap IMHO.
Good point bad choice if words for me
What is that device? I don't recognize it.
That’s my problem, I’d prefer not to replace anything I current have just to have about 6 or so temp/humidity sensors.
I’m new to HA, so going back and forth replacing items isn’t something I’d like to do, wife wouldn’t like it either.
I started down the Zwave route, but then got a few Zigbee motion sensors and bulbs. Then picked up 6 plugs for repeating.
No right or wrong answer there - that is up to you, of course. I just rip it out and sell it. lol.
The good part is you have choices! You have other options besides Xiaomi, so if you want to keep it simple you can just avoid them and move on.
But couldn’t this be said about Xiaomi devices? Not saying they are substandard, but they are the ones causing interoperability issues.
Download the Hubitat app
