I think this is a fair explanation and good analogy.
If I can make a suggestion, it would be good for both Homey and customers to explain this in a knowledge base article along with the solution you mentioned earlier to regain access to Homey when internet is down.
When customers have such issue, they don’t want / have no time to browse the forum.
I came across another topic in french here in the community where after a power outage, he lost internet for few days. Homey had an incorrect time / date because of the power outage and therefore some of his automation were running at an incorrect time. Automation like opening or closing shutter in the middle of the night 
