Personally, I feel that the Vera is the best HA platform because of the community and development of plug-ins. And as most of us feel, the most valuable plug-in is PLEG.
Scenes and LUA extensions are good, but PLEG is really what sets Vera apart from the competition. I can’t tell you how many posts that I’ve read in this (Scene Scripting) sub-forum, where the answer to the original post is to use PLEG. Because PLEG enables true home automation vs home control.
I started an blog on my thoughts and experience with home automation:
You’ve been reading my mind!
Really good blog, very clearly and well written