Modern gas boilers are analogue, seems odd with this digital age, but with the boiler analogue is better.
It is mainly to gain the latent heat from the flue gases, and to do this the return to the boiler needs to be cool enough, so many methods are used to try to allow the boiler to gradually increase or decrease output, if the boiler is switched off, then next time it is switched on, it has to start the adjusting output from scratch again, so the whole idea is to gradually open and close controls.
However, there is a problem, we don't want the boiler to run when not required, so we need a method to tell the boiler all areas are now warm enough, you can switch off.
So for many years the zone valve has been of limited use, as it is a simple on/off, with say 10 zone valves then chances are one will open as another closes, and with my property the flat under the main house rarely used, so turning it completely off makes sense. So there is still a place for a zone valve, but rather limited.
To set up central heating, A1 would cost a fortune, we do see building management systems able to heat and cool each room as required, but the cost of the installation is eye watering high. So we go for the near enough engineering approach, and this is where the water gets quite muddy, as we try to balance cost to install, to cost to run and also how comfortable the home will be.
I think Honeywell EvoHome was around the first, but we now have Drayton Wiser, Tado, and others all doing basic the same thing, plus some which were really not designed for the UK systems like Nest, that try to control whole home from one point, but since we don't in the main live in open-plan houses, or have hot air circulating around the house, one point control is in the main useless.
The next is hard-wired v wireless, some systems only work with hard-wired thermostats, I rejected Energenie for my house, as the hard-wire would cost too much.
I don't know how Worcester Bosch controls now work, when I looked at them for late mother's house, they seemed to use just one thermostat, which did not suit her house.
So it is down to the design of your house, there is no one system suits all. A house with doors on the rooms, and radiators on internal walls, linked TRV heads work well, put those radiators on external walls, and often better with wall thermostats, as the cool walls start heating too soon when on external walls.
I have learnt by my mistakes, cheaper to get a heating engineer who can avoid the errors I made, the biggest problem I have had is the sun in the windows, making just some rooms heat up far too much, so want fast reacting TRV's which can turn the heat off fast, and radiators only just warm enough, so they cool down fast. But no two homes are the same.
My mother's house was OK until apple trees cut down to get a caravan in, then too much sun in the bay windows, so it needed multi thermostats to cope with the sun moving around the house, and wind direction.
I fail to see how with a large house how outside sensors will work? As the four walls will have different conditions to cope with, but with our caravan (smallest living space I can think of) the hot air central heating worked A1 with a single thermostat.
All down to the design of your house.
