I got nowhere with support. They require the “Smartthings” Arlo mode now to do anything but that doesn’t have video recording enabled. I was told by support they turn that off so that Smartthings can record the video. I then asked how I can integrate those video clips into my custom routines and was greeted with no response. Reading the docs it appears the video recording in SmartThings only works with the Smart Home Monitor and that app eludes to SmartThings charging for the video portion eventually.
So I was left with the decision to use Smart Home Monitor or go back to the unreliable IFTTT or leave my Arlo Qs as high powered motion sensors. I kept searching for other answers and found Netgear Arlo mode management (AutoArlo) . This was broken due to failed support for the required SSL spec by SmartThings, but the SmartThings community came to the rescue in that thread and have a Node.js proxy. I set that up on Azure and now have exactly what I wanted. Simple Arlo mode switching from my custom smart app. Video is sent to the Arlo cloud but the modes in Arlo are swapped between Armed / Disarmed based on the SmartThings mode.
I will have to see how reliable this is and how long it lasts but for others looking for just standard mode switching. Note: This isn’t integration. The Arlo devices no longer show up in your SmartThings app. This is a smart app calling the Arlo API directly.
For many I assume this isn’t enough. Not the easiest learning curve either as it requires you to customize AutoArlo to fit your needs and be able to deploy a node.js package to Azure.