I think the Homepod is useless as its neither here nor there. Siri needs a lot of work to be useful and I honestly think that Siri without display is a DOA. So, if you strip Homepod to just sound then its ok but as assistant its not.
I would rather Apple remove the mic, Siri etc. and have it just a speaker. Drop the price and you have something.
Personally, I don't like Alexa or Google version too. To me, these products are DOA.
Airport express - airplay anything you want. AppleTV - airplay anything you want. These speakers are just not very useful to most people.
But hey, if it works for you then its fine.