The reason people suggest avoiding wifi is more than just having the isolated network. Between the protocol requirements, the possibility of network congestion, and the high probability of overlapping wifi network signals, it can make them unreliable or just a bit slower than you’d expect a light to work.

Thread enabled devices can make this better, apparently; if I was in the market for bulbs outside of my current zigbee setup I would want Thread. Zigbee is excellent so far for me

Personally, I’m very happy with my Hue lights, but not super happy with the price; I only get them on sale. One aspect that is not discussed enough, in my opinion, is the quality of light (CRI, dimming depth, colour intensity), which hue is great at imho. The new hub does some nerdy stuff for motion detection if you have multiple bulbs in a room which is interesting, though I haven’t looked into it much.