Donāt trust a router to provide dhcp? Huh? A router only really has two roles, nat and dhcp. Everything else is icing.
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Depends on the brand.
I trust my juniper SRX router, my mikrotik, and Ubiquiti. I donāt trust the average Netgear, Linksys, tplink, etc.
āHomeā routers generally suck all around for all but the simplest networks.
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Fair. I trust my merlin flashed Asus AC68U. Iāve had shitty routers in the past. You donāt always get what you pay for, but if you donāt pay enough, itās guaranteed to be crap. And my network isnāt super complex, only about 20 devices at max.
Oh yes, sorry I meant to add dd-wrt and itās derivatives/comprableās. The hardware is usually fine, itās the crappy rushed software that kills them.
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I would like to put a vote for the ability to setup a static IP, maybe in some advanced settings menu with proper warnings to minimize support trouble?
My reasoning for this is: I'm switching to Hubitat (and I think a lot of other people too) because of the local execution, I've learned to avoid Cloud as much as possible if I want to have reliable Home Automation. but more than "cloud" what that really means is to avoid dependency on other systems as much as possible, specially systems that do not go down alone but take other things down with them.
Most home routers hang or simply die often either due to the cheap power adapters or cheap components inside or user configuration error, etc. I personally have enterprise grade equipment in my home network as that's what I do for a living but still if whatever you are using for DHCP goes down the reservation is useless and you'll lose all the networked part of your Home Automation. I for example will soon be migrating into Hubitat integrations with Envisalink and a couple of RPI's for WiFi plugs, Thermostat and HRV controller, also plan to use some wall-mounted tablets around the house as a control dashboard and IP cameras, so there will be a lot of network dependent automation...
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I agree. The option for static should be there. Its about control. I try not to use DHCP addresses on my network. I had an ip camera leasing out DHCP addresses and blowing things up. No idea how it started doing that. Pretty bizarre. Setting up a DHCP reservation is just like setting a static IP with more steps and dependencies.
If I set a static IP I know it will work and can eliminate other potential issues. Now with IPV6 sure .. dhcp. People who set dhcp addresses for servers I think are stupid. Your entire environment is dependent on your DHCP server being there or doing the right thing. Ever seen iscsi storage with a DHCP address? Do your network switches have DHCP addresses? What if you want to have separate networks with different subnets that shouldnt talk to the other network? Are you going to bind another interface on the router so that you can have another dhcp server for that network? Are you going to set up a DHCP server on your other non-route-able network? Have you ever had a DHCP client come up with a auto assigned ip address because it couldnt access the dhcp server for some reason? Like maybe you have a wireless mesh network and they reboot in the wrong order? People who say that DHCP is the way to go and that static options are not needed are.... lacking in imagination.
It seems the real answer is no. Not all this gibberish about setting an IP with a DHCP reservation.
Setting an IP address with a DHCP reservation is setting a static IP address with more steps.
If your router goes down, your network goes down. So, what's the point of having a static IP in the hub?
From another perspective, I have a simple network with one router, and I really like using DHCP reservations. Prefer it over having to go to each individual device and set a static IP. One place to manage everything.
Some commercially available routers have a limitation on the number of entries in the reserved address list. I have a Netgear AC router. Wasn't super expensive but wasn't the bottom of the barrel either. It only allows 50 entries in the reserved addresses list. So, I use that only for those devices that I can't set manually myself.
Gotcha. I think I only have 3 or 4 reservations.
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It also keeps you from overlapping a static IP with DHCP range. I do run a unifi secure gateway so it's easy to do and to backup if I needed to replace the gateway.
I can see one use case, direct cable from a PC to the hub with static on both would allow access when no network is functioning.
Only if you substitute a Crossover cable. A direct cable will NOT work for that. Now, because of my work I have a bunch of those laying around but the same could not be said for most people. Plus, who's going to go through that trouble to get connection between just your PC and hub?
Good clarification, I do have plenty of those.
My experience these days is that almost all modern network ports are auto sensing and will work with a direct connection without a crossover cable. I haven't had to use a crossover cable for years. I hated wiring special crossover cables.
In my home, my router is just one of many switches throughout the house. When my router goes down, my network is still up and functioning. I can still access everything connected to the network that was not direct connected to my router's 4-port switch.
I didn't say it's what I would do, just pointing the only use case where it could be valuable. I saw a question where a guy wanted to install a hub in a house with no network. Static and cross over cable would have solved his problem.
But everything on that leg of your network is down. Wouldn't you just replace the failed router? And I HIGHLY doubt your network is anywhere near "typical" Dan. So, you're not a good test-case here. 
DHCP was created in the 1990's and in the 25+ years since, it is on the cusp of getting redundancy. However, for at least a decade there've been techniques for "layering on" redundancy. Pseudo Redundancy. At a high level the technique convinces a secondary DHCP server to answer late. If the primary is up and responding, it's answer gets there first and is used. the redundant "late" answer is dropped/ignored.
Either the Hubitat Hub is a critical piece of your home network, or it's not. IF it is, throw a redundant DHCP server at it.. Arduino would be fun, but dicey, rPi would be trivial.
Oh yes, I would replace it ASAP. My point is that things like my Apple TV would continue playing from my Plex Server, and they don't need the router for that connection. Same with my Desktop PC and my Hubitat Hub. As long as the leases don't expire, the devices really dont know the router is down (until they try to hit the Internet, of course!)
Like I said, I was willing to bet the bank on your setup not being "typical". And yes, some of my devices could still talk to others as I have two unmanaged switches in my network. But for anything meaningful to work I need my router to connect the two and for WiFi. All my Hubduino devices after all. 
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