"the hodge-podge of manufacturers building to Play-Fi compatibility makes it the most difficult multi-room audio system to use"
Wow - a "hodge-podge" of manufacturers - Definitive Technology, Paradigm, Polk Audio, Onkyo, Pioneer, McIntosh, Martin Logan, Klipsch, Sonus Faber, HP, Dish, etc.... I would not call this a hodge-podge group at all but rather a group of companies that try to appeal to readers of this rag, at least more so than Sonos, Bose, and the like.
Having used many of these products, the only thing difficult is that the setup button is in different locations, once you figure that out it is very similar to Heos, Chromecast, Sonos, or any other network connected item. After setup, the User interface is the same for all manufactures, identical!