All makes perfect sense to me ---
Ok look. Everyone here has mastered their web browser right? You can turn a PC on, type in the URL for IAL, fill out the pretty little form and post? Then go to a different website and buy something? Then go to your bank and look up your balance? Maybe go to a web-based email service like Gmail and then send messages? If you have mastered those tasks, then you have maybe 10% more to learn to master this.
Node-Red will let you take all of these cute little devices I am pushing ( and with Raspberry Zero that is a $5 investment)
and put them to work for you - quickly, easily, and with little more involved than checking your bank statements. If you are homesteading, spending 1-2 hours on automation with this tool will potentially save you hundreds of hours later. How about hooking up moisture sensors and then actually turning on a watering system when the soil is DRY. (but only on Tue and Thursday because of statist watering laws) How about automatically feeding or watering animals? Building security systems with motion sensors - that cankick off other events and log information..
The other key here is information -- you can start logging temperatures, soil conditions, soil PH, water PH, etc so you know when there is an issue with the crop ( that you and your loved ones are dependent upon come Teotwawki)
Yes individual solutions exist for all of this crap. Do they cost $5 and 2 hours of time? Are they integrated with everything else ?( you triggered the motion sensor-- and the sprinklers (or worse) come on to deter you from coming any further..)
This allows you to deploy sensor packages and operators ( turn a servo or motor, turn on a relay, etc) for about $10 and not a lot of investment in intellectual knowledge. Just check it out. Thins thing is designed for people who don't code and are trying to solve other issues. That presentation is by a statistician - not a programmer. He wants to collect and analyze data - and he wants that collection to be brainless so he can get on with the fun stuff (to him) of finding out what it means.
So stand on the shoulders of the giants. Its mostly free, and every little survival advantage you have. It almost feels like cheating if you are a programmer. Even more than using someone's library because now you don't even need to know the language syntax.