I would urge you to spend some time thinking about, perhaps even writing down, what it is you want the system to do. I used to always harp on the need for "Functional Requirements" - what should it do? Then look at what you would consider a success. You've touched on that a bit - you want it to work reliably and you are looking for good "WAF" (a term someone coined meaning Wife Acceptance Factor). I think that gets back to reliability and probably simplicity and consistency,
Notice I haven't mentioned any technology yet. You are in a great place in that you have a very small investment and don't have to worry too much about "installed base".
Before you spend your hard earned (assumption on my part) money, I would urge you to spend time reading this forum and others. From a lighting perspective, you might want to read a thread that I started when I asked a question similar to yours - search the forum for the words '"Best" Lighting Solution' or go to "Best" Lighting Solution. I learned a lot from the responses to my questions and it doesn't necessarily lead to a full hubitat solution.
Once you have thought about your functional requirements, take a good, hard, honest look at your capabilities and how much involvement do you want to have in the system's day-to-day care and feeding. Do you want to tinker? Would you like to be able to call someone if it doesn't work? How important is the integration of voice systems such as Echo? It's usually easier to stay with one ecosystem rather than having to integrate things. I would suggest you look at your "Functional Requirements" and compare them to existing ecosystems such as Amazon, Google, Lutron, etc.
If you really want to get into the analysis you might build a matrix of the possible solutions on one axis and the pros/cons and capabilities along another axis. Then you can look at what is most important to you.
Going back to my thread on the Best Lighting Solution, I got a number of (unexpected) recommendations that Lutron Ceseta Pro is an excellent lighting solution. It stands alone but also can be integrated with other systems including Hubitat.
I started with SmartThings when it was a start-up. I learned a lot. I've chucked a few devices in the trash. I switched over to Hubitat this summer and I like the system. I like the community even more. If you want to tinker, the community is really important. It's a great support mechanism as well as an idea factory and sounding board (just as you are using it). My pet peeve with automation after several years experience? Batteries. Battery operated devices are a pain in the arse. Even if your system is 100% stable, you will still be dealing with changing batteries. Obviously longer battery life is better but I would prefer if nothing required batteries. The obvious problem is, of course, how to neatly get power to devices that may be located all over the house.
I hope this helps. I didn't mean to preach but, as you can tell, I am big on defining "Functional Requirements" before jumping in to a project.
Best of luck and happy holidays!