Using the 5 button Tradfri, I have been able to do the dual install approach where you add the button and bulb to to smart things and you then also pair the remote direct to the bulb using the light link method.
The benefit is the remote and bulb show up in Smartthings and are controllable there (the remote button presses will show up in Smartthing but by default the button presses don’t do anything to the bulb via Smartthings, rather the remote will fully support the step dimming brightness as well because it is paired directly to the bulb. And you can do this with multiple bulbs and multiple remotes.
The downside is in that mode, the remote eat the batteries in less than 24 hours. So I ended up taking some spare 5v ac adapters and just hardwire soldered the leads to the battery terminals.
Works fantastic.
One note if warning, if you want multiple individual remote and bulb groups that are controlled independently, then you have to use community drivers that add zigbee group functions to both the bulbs and the remote.
For the bulbs I’m using the Mariano Zigbee light multifunction MC driver and for the 5 button remote I’m using the Lrmulli Zigbee button groups driver.
