An also very interesting approach is ESPhome. It has an alternative native API (not MQTT) and is fully integrated into HA.
Here is a very interesting discussion:
Somebody already started working on a ESPhome binding:
Maybe we should try to make an official ESPhome binding which is right in the OH core.
At the moment I have the feeling OH is somehow running out of developers and HA brings features first. A lot of developers focus on HA, which is interessting, because I think OH is the more powerful framework.
