BTRFS has RAID built into the file system - instead of using MD you use BTRFS profiles which tell the system how to handle data.

For instance

• file system data (critical for the file system to function): raid1c3 which means 3 copies of core P file system data on 3 different devices
• user data: raid1 (so duplicating all your data on two different devices)

With this set up you could lose one device (of n, the total doesn’t matter), and not lose any data, and still be able to boot to recover with too much hassle.

BTRFS does block checksums, can scan for bit rot and recover from it, and generally tries to make your data safe. It technically supports raid5/6 for user data, the issue is around unclean shutdowns and a potential write hole where you could lose data, but if your system has a UPS backup and is on a relatively recent kernel it’s not any more dangerous than MD raid5/6 as I understand it.

You’ll need to use | float(0) in templates. All state values and attributes start out as strings. Also setting a default value in the float(#) cast will ensure templates don’t break when the value is invalid.

That means use this style: {{ state\_attr("light.kitchen\_sink\_ceiling", "brightness") | float(0) }}

It comes down to what are the developers willing or able to support.

For smaller teams they usually don’t want the responsibility of maintaining the package for distros, and HA developers have chosen to not support that option themselves. In their case I see it - what’s the benefit or incentive to them to maintain packages and the associated support costs or headaches. Containers mean they get a known state and don’t have to try to support unknown environments.

Some interested people can maintain the packages for their chosen distro - for instance I see one for Gentoo but it’s only up to 2024.6. It’s the first that came up in a search but there are likely more too supported by the community.

In my case, I also think that using HAOS on a dedicated box has led to a more stable experience as it’s not competing for resources on my other hosts, and attaching devices to it is much simpler. I think encouraging a solid base for people means a better experience overall when to be honest it’s hard to get started with it to begin with for many people.