I kept running into the same problem: an automation dims the lights for a film, another one flashes a lamp for a notification, and restoring afterwards with scene.create breaks all the time. The snapshot is gone after a restart, the restore undoes what someone changed in the meantime, and two automations restore each other's leftovers.  
So I built **Layers**, a custom integration (HACS). Each automation puts a *layer* on a light and removes it when it's done. The light always shows the top layer, and removing it shows whatever is underneath **now**, not a saved copy.

Example: the film turns the sofa lamp off (priority 40), and the washer finishing turns it orange (priority 70). Empty the washer and the lamp goes back to **off**, because the film is still on. When the film ends, it goes back to how you had it.

People always win: switch a light by hand and Layers leaves that light alone

Survives restarts; checks commands actually arrived and retries

A timer running out never lights up a dark room  
Blueprint included for "dim the room while the TV plays"

Starts in watch-only mode, so you can see what it would do first

It's v0.1.0 and has been running in my house for about ten days. I'd really like feedback, especially on how it should behave when someone changes a light by hand.

I made Layers: automations can borrow a light and give it back, without scene snapshots