[Delphinus]

I wouldn't say "ditch your controller" but ultimately it is a piece of equipment like any other that is prone to eventual failure of some kind. Make sure that there are mitigations in place for any one thing that can take out a tank. In my case I've added a Ranco to my heater: both controllers have to fail for the heater to get stuck powered on. (Frankly I need to go even one step further and buy a smaller wattage heater, shame on me for not having done that yet, I better get on with that.)

But yeah "eggs all in one basket" kinda thing. I do prefer the ability to control outlets via a single controller (and correspondingly using my laptop or phone to do programming adjustments), but that's really where the convenience ends for me.