Z-wave is going to come up with a pre-config mechanism. I am currently doing this the old way of adding the switches remotely in a lab set up. But this will help dramatically for integrators to provide their customers with preconfigured kits easily.
Will ST be supporting this , considering it is mostly geared towards the end consumer?
Just some info, but doesn’t answer your question.
It’s actually mostly geared towards professional installers who put together bundle kits at a warehouse. It’s not entirely clear how it’s going to work for individual devices in a DIY channel. But remember that the Z wave alliance has said that 2/3 of z wave devices are professionally installed, and when they first announced this idea in 2015, it was at a group meeting for pro installers at CES and was clearly in response to Xfinity home requests.
Comcast was complaining about the warehouse tech having to open the box and put an individual light switch on power in order to add it to the bundle that was being shipped for installation. This solves that issue completely. 
Aeotec just came out with the Door/Window Sensor 7 (ZWA008) and in the first bullet of the install instructions it recommends installing with Smart Start if your hub supports it.
Has anything come out about ST incorporating Smart Start into their hub since last October? It may have been intended for Pro-Installers but it’s clearly considered a retail feature by this premium manufacturer.
I guess it is still hard to say how smart start will help end users. Perhaps SmartThings can sell devices that will be preconfigured to your account when they come to you - But not sure about logistics of doing something like that at a very large scale. - Perhaps some automated process is definitely possible.
Until SmartThings has a clear strategy on leveraging the feature, I do not see why they will implement it, although they did mention in an alternate thread that this is something that will come in future.
That strategy could be opening up their hub and system officially to integrators like us or providing an in-house pre-configuration support for customers who buy devices from them. What is interesting is that all of SmartThings devices are Zigbee and not sure if SmartThings will even want to re-sell z-wave devices from other manufacturers. Zigbee has a similar concept if I am not wrong, which Nest and some other companies leverage. I personally would like to have this feature to help fast track our pre-configuration process. We currently have a pretty efficient way to pre-configure devices, but it still requires us to remove devices from packages and configure them.
Except the Hub itself, which has to be certified as a Z wave device.
S2 and SmartStart are now required for Z wave certification, and smartthings got a temporary waiver for their 2018 hub, but they do need to put it in eventually.
Z Wave SmartStart aims to shift the tasks related to inclusion of an end device into a Z-Wave network away from the end device itself, and towards the more user-friendly interface of the gateway.
.
Z-Wave SmartStart removes the need for initiating the end device to start inclusion. Inclusion is initiated automatically on power-ON, and repeated at dynamic intervals for as long as the device is not included into a Z-Wave network.
.
As the new device announces itself on power-ON, the protocol will provide notifications, and the gateway can initiate the inclusion process in the background, without the need for user interaction
or any interruption of normal operation. This improvement also removes the possibility of other devices being included, as the SmartStart inclusion process only includes authenticated devices.
.
By moving the device authentication process into the manufacturing and distribution phase or service provider domain, the end user is no longer required to do anything but to power on the devices. This enables a simplified user experience where the device is genuinely ready to use, right out of the box . The device manufacturer or service provider can now prepare inclusion prior to the devices ending up at the end user’s house.
.
Building on the elements introduced by S2 security, the Z-Wave SmartStart is not only easy for the end user, but also secure. Z-Wave SmartStart uses the same device specific keys (DSK) that form the foundation of the secure inclusion process of S2. Only authorized and intended devices are included in the Z-Wave network. Z-Wave SmartStart is based on the embedded SDK 6.8x and related gateway software components.
https://www.silabs.com/documents/login/white-papers/introduction_to_z-wave_smartstart_091317.pdf
And the following article is a good practical look at why everybody who uses z wave is going to want to have this even if it’s not preconfigured.
You buy a new Z wave device, you scan the QR code, you power on the device, and you add it. You don’t have to physically manipulate the device anymore. That’s the value proposition for the end-user. They don’t have to know which button to press how many times or hold for how long or wait till the indicator light turns Amber or anything like that. 
