Shane’s channel costs me so much money 
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In fairness, all YouTubers jump on Amazon’s various promotions such as the current Spring promo because of the affiliate commissions.
My counter-intuitive advice is stick to a plan with your smart home and try to limit purchases to compatible ecosystem and vendor products.
Costs a little more than buying one-off “hero” products, but much less support nightmare in the long-run.
Just set up shopping alerts for the brands/products you want and wait for the sales.
(N.B. I’m sure most power users know how to bypass affiliate tracking if that is your preference.)
In the video he make it clear that he has affiliate links and clicking helps support his channel.
And he cautions against buying things just because they’re on sale.
Finally, he is pretty much an Apple HomeKit guy, noting that he sticks to that ecosystem, highlighting items that work with HomeKit.
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Sorry, bad choice of words on my part. Rather than ecosystem (HomeKit, Amazon, Google, Others) I meant to say staying with the same known brand can be a benefit.
e.g. Smart Plugs can be commodity these days, but instead of buying the latest/cheapest/currently on sale plug from multiple companies, there are good reasons to stay with one brand/product line if you can:
Each smart home product, regardless of ecosystem, has some features or settings that require the manufacturers apps. Sticking to one brand, means less apps to juggle and learn. Since every manufacturer app has a unique UI/UX, this can be frustrating and confusing, especially when one uses the manufacturer app infrequently.
Most products tend to have installation or usage quirks. Sticking to one or two brands allows one to gain familiarity, “muscle memory” and experience streamlining installation and troubleshooting when needed.
Quantity discounts can offset 1-off sales. For products like smart plugs, I’ll buy them in 2-packs or 4-packs and keep a few “on hand” for seasonal or temporary use.
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