I’m not sure there will ever be an idiot’s guide to Home Assistant - while in the long run it’s easier to use than SmartThings, there is a learning curve. That said, once you have it set up, the HomeKit integration is much snappier that the (deprecated) ST-Homebridge integration. The Home Assistant-ST integration works very well too. I’ve moved everything except a couple of Zigbee bulbs from ST to HA, and everything still looks perfectly integrated. If you go this route, I recommend that you install the ST integration upfront, and then you can migrate devices at your own pace. Some useful links:
- Getting Started with Home Assistant including Installing Home Assistant on a Pi
- Integrating SmartThings into Home Assistant
- Integrating HomeKit into Home Assistant
- Full list of integrations in case you have Hue, Lutron, etc.
Finally, if you go this route, check in to the Former smartThings Users thread in the Home Assistant Community. You’ll see some familiar names - hope we see you there.