But you are now suggesting the "general public" is interested in programming for IoT devices. They aren't! No way. The general public doesn't care about any programming.
You say "general public" but then you also said you "want to be able to write articles that benefit the electrical DIY hobbyist home automation-inspired individual programmers/developers". I mean WOW! :eek4: That is a very tiny group of highly specialized individuals, no where near representative of the general public.
The "general public" get frustrated setting the clocks on their microwave ovens, entering a destination on their car's GPS, or programming their DVR so they don't miss the next episode of "The Big Bang Theory" (Penny represents the "general public" BTW, with her lack of interest in physics, etc). The general public could care less how something works, or why it works, they just want it to work. No way is the "electrical DIY hobbyist home automation-inspired individual programmer/developer" a member of the general public!
Look, I appreciate what you are trying to do, and your struggle getting that defined. But you are not accepting the fact that the general public could care less about this. No matter how generalized you make your topics, no matter how "broad" the strokes are with your topics, you are still writing "technical articles". And that means only a very small audience of tech heads will be interested.
I am much more than a "electrical DIY hobbyist" having been a master certified electronics technician supporting IS/IT systems for over 45 years. But I don't care about programming. In fact, I made it career goal to avoid programming as much as possible! I even worked for Northrop Grumman IT in their software development division for 10 years after I go out of the Air Force.
People don't care how Alexa turns on their lights. They only care that the lights go on.
Look at this TechRepublic article I got today, Top 5: Ways to create secure IoT devices. It is so simplistic, it is boring. But it has to be simplistic to avoid talking over readers' heads. So then who is the audience? But even though it is not talking over the heads of the general public, do you think the general public would find that article interesting? I don't. In fact, I would not even have read it if it had not been for this discussion here. Did I get anything out of it? No.
Here are the top 50 occupations in US. Note where software developers are. 
And that's the rosy list! See where System Software Developers sit on this list.
So I am back to the recommendation I made above. If you want a suggestion, write about securing IoT devices. Write how to prevent Alexa and other devices from gathering our passwords and other personal data they heard while eavesdropping on us. Write how to prevent them from being hacked by bad guys. Or to block them from "phoning home" and giving our personal information to Amazon and Google so they can sell it, or use it against us.
