I don’t doubt thread is getting better and could be the more future proof of them all but i bought some zigbee motion sensors for less than $10 and haven’t changed the battery in them in nearly two years. When thread devices are that cheap and can run on battery that long i’ll gladly recommend them too. For now, for beginners, i like to recommend zigbee for it’s low cost in both money and power usage.
It is as vast and customizable as it gets. The sky, and your imagination, is the limit. I’ve been at it for years and i’m still tinkering with automations and services. It’s biggest strength, in my eyes, is being able to run everything local and off line. My advice is to start with zigbee so as to not congest your Wi-Fi traffic and add in zwave where the budget allows and range is needed.
When you come down from your high and you’re looking for your next hit check out home assistant.
When i say that imagination is the limit i mean it. I ordered some car seat pressure sensors and soldered them to either end of a door contact sensor and put them under our couch cushions. Now i have a battery powered, zigbee based, way to override the motion based automation if we’re on the couch. The lights stay on if we’re too still or they stay off if we’re napping and a pet walks in.
I watched a video where a guy used meshtastic to reach the back of his property and those radios can run on solar.