This is interesting framing, and I tend to agree with it. I think there's a difference when it comes to smart (home) devices:

1. Something desirable but inaccessible for most suddenly becomes accessible by technology (e.g. security cameras via Nest or health data via Apple Watch).

These types of products tend to work.

2. Something you already do, but faster/better. This is where we get smart ovens, smart toaster, smart light switches etc.

In this category, we see what you describe: little to no benefit over the "normal way". Some step function changes exist (Roomba), but most are ephemeral junk that either becomes worse as cloud services deprecate or are the same thing with a tablet instead of buttons.