Cool, but if you can afford to hire an illustrator to make a custom dashboard for your lights and thermostat, you're clearly in the 1%.
You don't really need to be in the 1% to be a patron if you need some art.
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1wyyrd6/comm...
I agree it just feels weird to spend on “software” for home improvement, but sometimes it may make a bigger difference than the hardware!
I've commissioned tons of art, and one of the great joys is the surprise at how they interpret your idea, and how it's always different than what you had in your mind. That joy is unique to commissioned art, I think.
It's just not a typical thing to do pre or post AI. "Revealed preference" doesn't seem like a useful lens without some basic degree of awareness that a choice even exists.
And on the flip side, I have a friend who commissioned some kind of avatar for social media from an artist friend of friend for the first time in their life. They loved the result a lot and since then have commissioned a bunch of little random things once they realized it was a thing anyone could easily do with a few bucks. For stuff like their WoW character/guild, D&D, social media, etc.
They make less than six figures, each request was <$100 IIRC. Budgeted basically like any other gaming/hobby purchase for personal entertainment.
So, sure 900usd or a part of that system is a lot of money and I wouldn't do it. But I've spent 900usd on techthings with a very diminishing amount of return :)