Can you clarify what you expect the local communication story will be? Based on Access data on LAN - #3 by rohan - General Discussion - Tidbyt and the Kickstarter comments, it sounded like opening up local network APIs was at least planned and not entirely off the roadmap.
I backed for 2, but if there’s no local API story (via reflashing or built into the standard OS), then I would have to respectfully back out of my pledge. For me, as a tinkerer/programmer, writing local integrations via Homebridge (for HomeKit/Alexa support in my existing smarthome setup) is a must. If this isn’t a priority for you, that’s fair, and I would continue looking into building my own 
Alternatively, if you could sell me just the hardware with no service access… 