Smart by Bond (SBB) remotes / kits are smarter with smart home integrations and assistants, particularly with integrations that you would like to use in conjunction with physical remotes.
The Bridge (hub) is great if you want a quick solution, or if you have DC fans, or you want to preserve more than 4 speeds. But - in integrating with other smart home products / assistants, if you mix that with physical remotes which are not SBB, despite Bond team’s best efforts, there is in inherent limitation where if you verbally tell your assistant to turn off all lights in XYZ room, BOND will send a power toggle command to the fan light (for most fans which do not have a discrete off command) if it thinks the fan light was last on. If someone had used a non-SBB remote to turn off the light physically, though, the light will come back on instead.
There are some options Bond team has built to try to mitigate this, but nothing they do will turn your fan into a real-time status feedback system if it is not SBB.
What does this mean?
If you want to use voice / app control AND physical remotes, as long as the fans you’re considering are AC motor driven, I would recommend you get the SBB kits. I also then put little labels on the switch(es) for the fan/light to keep them on and only use the SBB remote.
If you want only voice / app control and are fine without physical remotes, or if you are considering DC motor fans, I would suggest you get the Bridge. You could still leave switches as a physical way to shut off power to fan/light.
Either the SBB kits or the Bridge work well with other smart home products and assistants, given the caveats above.