No V1. That is an EOL device, it will not be receiving future updates, and it lacks a number of newer security and integration features.
Besides, one of the main issues with SmartThings is the cloud instability, and that affects all models of hubs except to some extent The ADT model.
And there’s still no way to answer your question without knowing more about what they want to use it for. Well, no way to answer it except to say right now smartthings is going through a huge transition period: New hub, new app, and new cloud platform. That’s the source of many of the negative reviews right now, but there’s honestly no way to tell whether the end result will be any better.
At the present time We are driving over a road with potholes and a bridge or two washed out, but that doesn’t tell us anything about what the hotel will be like when we get to our destination. 
So I could not at present recommend SmartThings to anyone looking for a “set and forget” system even if They will have someone else do the initial set up.
I might still recommend it to someone with a strong technical background who enjoys tinkering, was not going to use it for critical use cases, and could tolerate their system, that had been working great for months, suddenly running into a fatal glitch in the cloud that took support a couple of weeks to fix.
An example that is still current:
Hub Firmware Release Notes - 25.26
Your own disinterest in discussing this decision in the context of use cases sounds like you are just looking for an engineering evaluation, not a customer satisfaction evaluation. In which case, don’t get SmartThings. There is too much flux right now for that kind of assessment.