Worth a move from ST?

[erktrek]

Z-wave will work but you may have to poll some devices to get them to report reliably.

Polling - what's it for?

At the risk of sounding daft, I'm wondering if someone can explain a few scenarios where one might want to poll a device. It sounds to me like it might be handy for checking in on a device like a contact sensor that doesn't report its status always. But I am admittedly uninformed here.