I chose the CT101 based on low price, you could get a Honeywell T5 which is much more aesthetically pleasing and still supports Z-Wave, which accomplishes the goal of having a thermostat that won't lose smart home cloud support (by integrating it with Home Assistant using the standard Z-Wave protocol).
Plenty of cheap thermostats have good aesthetics. The $30 round Honeywell analog thermostat is a timeless design. Their $30 non-programmable digital thermostat (RTH5160) is aesthetically pleasing enough, I certainly wouldn't call it ugly. I didn't interpret the stated goal of this project to be particularly relevant to aesthetics.
Plenty of cheap thermostats have good aesthetics. The $30 round Honeywell analog thermostat is a timeless design. Their $30 non-programmable digital thermostat (RTH5160) is aesthetically pleasing enough, I certainly wouldn't call it ugly. I didn't interpret the stated goal of this project to be particularly relevant to aesthetics.