I would have to respectfully disagree. The eighth generation of Z wave, Z wave series 8, is very cool from an engineering perspective and is designed for large commercial properties. It has incredible range, over 1 mile, and instead of the Z wave mesh structure used in previous generations. It uses a star structure topology more similar to Wi-Fi. But using much less power than Wi-Fi devices. It will be great, for example, for a smart hotel with big parking lots. Or a commercial building with automated lights and security systems. And will have the ability to support up to 2000 devices on a single net work, as opposed to 232 with series 5.
Zwave is UL listed for security which zigbee is not for some complicated technical reasons, but it’s the reason that, for example, the ring security system uses zwave.
Anyway, it’s pretty clear that series 8 is the future of zwave, and I think it will be real. But you will need a series 8 hub for those features, and SmartThings/Aeotec isn’t even up to Series seven yet. So that’s all pretty far off in the future, maybe two years. But I don’t think you have to throw out your Z wave devices now. There is a future for them. But it may very well mean a different hub than the one you have now.
That said, when it comes to buying new switches now, I would personally agree with the recommendations of either Lutron Caseta (which I use in my own home and really like) or wait for matter. Going Zigbee right now isn’t going to be a guarantee of future compatibility. And matter is still a few months off in terms of actually having devices you can buy.
JMO, of course. 