I just read a thread in this forum where a guy wants to select devices to power up
with a button push, and have them turn on when he wants to, but he can't, because
Logitech decided for him that the power button shouldn't do that. Doesn't seem like
an unreasonable concept to me.
It is unreasonable if you understand how the activity model and smart state work.
If you don't want to use the activity model, then you don't need a harmony. If you accept the activity model then the harmony will seamlessly control all of your devices in one room including powering components on and off and selecting inputs as needed. And it can be setup in 30 minutes by anyone with no programming required. Anything beyond that is simply customizing for the sake of customizing - which is ok if that's what you want, but it's certainly not needed.
There are exceptions where the harmony doesn't work well - if you NEED a long macro to perform some frequently used function or if your device has unpredictable behavior. But that's the exception not the rule.
The simple fact is a CI has different requirements than a regular user. Let's just leave it at that.
