Crestron/Control4 are an entirely different category than smartthings. You have to pay a professional to install them and maintain them. They work very well, they are very reliable, everything runs locally except for out of building access, They can tie together home theater, home security, and home automation, but, yes, they will probably cost you $8000 plus an annual contract. Maybe more. I don’t know anybody who would compare them head to head to SmartThings.
If all you want is lighting, then Crestron and control4 just cost too much. That’s not their value proposition unless you start synching them up with home theater controls.
Don’t connect hue bulbs directly to a smartthings hub: they will mess up your Zigbee network. The only brands of zigbee bulbs I would look at to connect directly to a smartthings network would be Sengled, Ikea
Tradfri, or Innr.
FAQ: Do I need the Hue Bridge/Hub to Use a Hue Bulb with SmartThings?
You used to be able to use multiple hue bridges with a smartthings account: I don’t know if that still true.
A hue bridge with smartthings works OK, not perfectly. There can be a popcorn effect, but that’s true of smartthings and pretty much any bulbs however they’re connected. And you can get more effects and much better group and scene controls through the native hue app. Also a wider selection of accessory switches.
So I guess my first question is what would you expect smartthings to bring to the project that you couldn’t get from Hue on its own or, say, Hue plus HomeKit?