Absolutely, if full local control is what you want and you expect to get more devices then it’s worth either reusing an old computer for home assistant or getting a home assistant yellow.

Yeah, I don’t blame you not wanting to commit to a hub if you’d only have this thermostat.

Depending on what features you want maybe you could find an offline one with those features built in. I know there’s ones with schedules and presence detection that are fully offline.

I’ve used this zwave thermostat for a few years now and it’s done fine. Only really makes sense if you already have a Z-wave compatible hub though.

https://a.co/d/aEr4gaq