Thermostats don't only control electric base boards, they can also control A/C systems, furnaces, hydroponic baseboards, in floor heating, etc.
Used mostly in in floor heating systems where if the step to go from current temp to programmed tem will kick in a emergency heating system (backup) that is usually air forced and will help bring the temps up a bit faster and many times more efficiently.
You should consider adding the Thermostat Scheduler built in app.
As for the other questions about Google assistant, sorry I don't use it. Echo devices work great with Sinope thermostats and Hubitat.
