This is all very interesting. I wasn’t actually aware of “Matter” until reading this thread.
It looks like it was only announced not very long ago. From googling around its been very hard to get a true insight of its inner workings and implementation…
The new things that I’ve learned though are …
Zigbee is now called CSA
CHIP is now called “Matter”
CSA is a big force behind the creation of “Matter”
Makes your head spin eh. 
All the copy and pasted press releases I found don’t really say much on it or give a proper nuts and bolts explanation of its true workings. Though it sounds very promising, is also very vague at this point…
From what I could gather from reading the press releases it sound like my initial assumptions were correct. It sounds like they have essentially killed Zigbee as we know it. All your hubs and all your devices have basically been set to “obsolete” (ironically from the same people who created it in the first place) …
I couldn’t find any mention of the new standard using the Zigbee RF protocols. They just mention it using WiFi and Bluetooth protocols (for pairing purposes)… From what I can see just requires a router that’s “Matter” compatible… As you mentioned before this new standard is IP based so id say an Ethernet based router is the only thing that’s going to manage it centrally…
What ever the future might entail for this new standard I’d say if you own Zigbee equipment right now or if you buy a Zigbee hub or Zigbee device this year there would be be zero chance you can simply just do a firmware update to keep your gear future proof.
They have basically abandoned Zigbee from what I can see.
The standard that was originally meant to “unify” IOT devices ., They have now replaced it with a system that “unifies’ all devices. 
. It’s a script to a bad movie … hehe
Luckily I’ve never invested any of my money in overpriced Zigbee gear. It’s nothing but a pain from what I’ve seen from other people in numerous threads and comments on the internet… Even Athom have had a hard time trying to deal with it as the standard is an utter mess…
My own view is WiFi just works…
They got the “wheel” so to speak. A long running, work hardened and proven standard. They then changed it to a weak assed version of it. They then made the pairing system for more complicated. Nothing in the standard really talks to each other like it was meant to. The hardware or software isn’t standardised (like it should be), the hardware costs more to buy (as its all proprietary) and you have to buy and add multiple physical hubs to get your system to work if you have different devices from different manufacturers.
Bye bye …glad to see this “con” job has finally had its day …
Phillips Hue gear was probably the biggest con job of them all…
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