Don’t disagree with your observations and sentiment. Feels like consumer grade home automation is still very much in the realm of the hobbyist/tinkerer for anything beyond the simplest use cases.
I wish I could offer some other insight into how to diagnose the location tracking issues. In the event you want to set up a virtual presence sensor, here is a link to the vEdge Creator Edge driver by @TAustin that makes setting up virtual devices a breeze.