I’ve debated for a while whether to weigh-in on this topic, but a number of worth while points have been raised in last half dozen posts, that I thought worth building upon. I consider myself still to be a relatively newcomer although I have been using OpenHAB now for about 9 months. As I had noted in a few other posts, I took a look at most/all of the open source HA solutions before deciding to move forward with OpenHAB. In my opinion, they all have relatively steep learning curves and are not meant for the casual user. Flexibility and power comes at a price of complexity. Also as I have said in other posts, I do not see this changing anytime soon, if ever. As a result, open source HA is not the right solution for many and they are better served by using a custom installer if they have a complex installation or being satisfied with Google or Alexa.
When I first decided to implement OpenHAB I had no clue about HA, but I read the docs, and re-read them and looked at examples and began to see the potential. Being retired, I had the luxury of time and so I dove deep, took large bites, and spent long hours setting up my installation. When I hit a wall, as a last resort I would post a question on these forums. Very few to be honest. After investing several hundred hours learning and implementing hardware and software solutions using OpenHAB I know I have made the right choice. I now have a fully automated house using OpenaHAB. I mostly view OpenHAB as an appliance, residing in a docker on my server, waiting for an event to respond to. In between events, it is forgotten. I would say for me OpenHAB is 80% appliance, 20% hobby. Still this not for everyone, which brings me to my next point.
Having spent most of my life developing, advancing and commercializing technology, one of the dangers I see with a project such as OpenHAB is that it tries to be all things to all people in an attempt to attract a larger following. I say again solutions such as OpenHAB are powerful, complex and require a strong technical foundation to be successfully implemented in a meaningful fashion and tap its full potential. So while I agree with rlkoshak that the choice may not be binary, the efforts to ad=vance OpenHAB should be well focused. While there is no true authority to mandate direction of OpenHAB, we all of have the power to influence direction. Perhaps some more than others, but nevertheless we all are influencers by how we choose to interact on these forums.
Lastly, to the point of forum interactions, I think one of the major benefits OpenhHAB is the strong user community as exemplified by these forums. It is global in nature and as such provides unique and varied perspective from many cultures. In my work life, I had the good fortune to deal with people from every continent, and culture does play a role in how each of us views things and responds to what we see. Some of us on these forums are more direct in our language and others more restrained and polite, but I believe we all have a common goal in making OpenHAB the go to platform for HA. In my view it’s not about political correctness, or catering to sensitivities, but getting things right to advance that goal for our mutual benefit.
So my advice to newcomers to any open source HA platform is to be prepared for a steep learning curve. Do not embark on this adventure if you have a weak technical foundation, are not willing to spend time, effort and energy as an active learner (learning is hard work), be prepared for frustration but power it through it as the end result is worth the effort.
Finally, for me at least the UI is not all that confusing. Could it be improved? Sure, but it is definitely not an impediment to implementation or use of OpenHAB.