Yes that unfortunately is still the preferred route for 3-speed fan control and dimming lights since there isn’t working solution just yet There is hardware out there from for a combo fan/light controller that uses Insteon and HomeDepot has a new solution with Hampton Bay that works in zigbee that has real potential if they ever release the Zigbee documentation to figure out the endpoints / clusters and the hex codes to send / receive to understand the device but today neither of these work directly with SmartThings.
UPDATE: The Home Depot solution is becoming available and is really REALLY good.