You do a great job of selling me on SmartTiles, Tim… Thanks! Indeed, we are likely to consider offering companion plug-ins to handle geo-location/presence and notifications… But we can’t automatically link to the push() notification method used by hundreds of SmartApps and that means we’re shut out of a large user base unless we can convince all those SmartApp writers (including SmartThings) to fire an alternative notification Event that is exposed in the available APIs. It is not a platform standard and pretty much insurmountable challenge.
The Device Type UI Spec problem is not one of being unable to create rich interfaces on our own — Indeed, that’s what we’ve done — it’s the fact that we have no access to the metadata{} inside an arbitrary Device Type and can’t even dream of parsing this to provide (our version of…) the interface controls the defined by the Device Type Handler Developer. SmartTiles (and any front-end developers) can only accommodate (a) Devices using only the official published Capabilities, or (b) devices whose source code is openly published and not changed without warning.
We cannot, for example, fully support the Honeywell EVO Thermostat because it has non-standard controls and its Device Type Handler source code is closed. So I guess that is one many examples that fall in the >“10%” that is irrefutably outside the reach of Community Developers.
The question I ask the Community reading this is:
If a Windows Universal App can barely do more than current SmartTiles, with a lot of duscussed functionality being arguably (?) impossible or difficult to realistically and reliably include, then what is the value of a WU App over just what we already can deliver in the browser?
I think you know the answer… Customers see the need for a “first-class” WU App that fully (and fully sanctioned) replicates (and exceeds) all the features in SmartThings current mobile Apps.
If SmartThings provided the same complete underlying infrastructure to client app developers, then this challenge would be fair; though, unfortunately, SmartThings Platform Developer Terms Agreement explicitly states that SmartThings won’t provide a promise not to compete with the those Developers, placing a tremendous burden of risk for a lot of work with no assurance of revenue. Employees of SmartThings don’t face this risk.
As a specific example of the “hard ceiling” that front-end developers encounter, may I again ask if we will ever get an API into the SHM (Smart Home Monitor) Notifications and Acknowledgements? This is a common request for SmartTiles because SHM alerts, as far as I know and been told, are not accessible and dismissable outside of the native App (or, presumably the limited 3rd party monthly fee-based add-on services like Scout at $20/month). This limitation alone makes a front-and-center feature of SmartThings unusable from Windows, a browser, or by any means outside the ST App. No?
(We can’t even set SHM Mode without using an undocumented and disapproved backdoor that could be shut down at anytime.)
It is like Windows Phone 10 is giving SmartThings dev a Lamborghini capabilities to run with and we are being forced to run in only first gear. 
I am not complaining though because before this update it was like we were 