I would start with home assistants built in automations and scripts before diving into node-red. Node-red is great for complex automations, but if all you’re doing is turning on lights and stuff, just using HA is more than enough, and has a much easier learning curve, IMO.

More than that, it’s THE communication method for businesses.

That’s a rather narrow set of use cases. For example, they are audio and video editing powerhouses. Audio in particular is exceptional because of core audio in MacOS.

And upgradable components aren’t something 95% of the population is worried about. Max out what you need when you buy it. My last Mac lasted 8 years with no trouble. And by the time I was ready to upgrade, the bottleneck was mainly the cpu, which in a case of 8 years, that means a new motherboard, and at that point you might as well upgrade the whole computer, as standards have changed and updated.