The smart home needed Matter, a universal language for connected devices that lets them talk to each other no matter who made them. But did it need Thread? We already had plenty of wireless protocols for most use cases — Zigbee for lighting, Z-Wave for security systems, Bluetooth for proximity control of devices like locks, and Wi-Fi for high-bandwidth needs such as cameras. If Matter had provided a secure, simple, local way to unify those protocols, it might be in a better place today.
Source