I have a networked light switch here, a DIY version operated via USB, connected to a server (so de facto networked). It’s quite comfortable to not have to get out of bed and switch the light on or off with a single command from a laptop (that’s always on hand, and if it wouldn’t be, a simple ESP8266 based wifi button could be hacked together in one evening, or even the Amazon Dash button could be scavenged and adapted and its DHCP request broadcast listened for and mapped to a light toggle function). If needed, it could get its control exposed to the LAN via a REST-based API.
If it doesn’t save the effort, it is badly designed. Most things are badly designed.
