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Personally I own a lot of ZWO gear, both my planetary and DSO camera are ZWO and I own their AM5 mount. I have other accessories as well like their filter drawer and OAG, etc.
But I am purposefully avoiding some of their gear like the ASIAir so that I do not get locked into their ecosystem. I am perfectly happy with sticking to ASCOM control via my laptop. I can see the benefits in terms of ease of use and simplicity, but I can also see the limitations introduced once you are locked in with an ASIAir.
For example, Pegasus Astro have been coming out with some really interesting gear recently. I wouldnt want to put myself in a position where I am locked out of their future products.
Is it more difficult to do astrophotography without the ASIAir? I think it would be, but the great variety of tools that are available right now on PC like SharpCap and NINA have so many great features built in, that the flexibility outweighs the hassle.
I think the industry as a whole (even ZWO) have all happily agreed to supporting ASCOM as their open source platform of choice, and as long as you purchase gear that supports that platform, you cant really go wrong.
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