This is really great feedback and we are listening.
We know there are issues with the header. The Android implementation is far from ideal and has proved to be a technical challenge for a lot of reasons. The iOS execution is closer to the original vision but I agree that it’s not the best use of space.
Embracing material design has been discussed and we’re certainly not ruling it out. The challenge is designing something that will work cross platform and will be easy for developers on the platform to adopt. Beyond iOS and Android, we’re also supporting wearables, and lots more devices we can’t reveal yet… so the experience needs to be consistent. Again though, not ruling it out.
SmartTiles is cool (I use it) and ultimately, we need something like this to get at and control devices and status quickly. There are a lot of reasons why the UI is what it is and we are working on it. We’re discussing sharing the future vision with the community. If you’re interested, please let me know.
Keep the feedback coming.