Reddit mentions of Pixel TW-283/S2 Wireless Shutter Release Timer Remote Control for Sony Digital Camera a7 Series, a7ii,a9, a6500, a7s2, a7r, a7rii,a7s, a3000, a58, a5100, a6500, HX400, NEW-3HL

I work in the software industry. There's no such thing as a "super straight forward" feature on a high end consumer electronic device like the A7. Every feature gets a design doc, project plan, quality assurance cycle, and user testing. Documentation has to be written; both for the user manual and the in-camera guide. That documentation has to be professionally translated into at least half a dozen languages

Programming is often a trivial part of adding a feature.

With an unsupported 3rd party add-on, doing something like that is no big deal. Support what languages you want. If it sucks or it's broken, release an update. It's not going to create black marks on your camera review.

And as far as it goes, you can use a cheap intervalometer do do what you're asking. Set the camera to 3 shot bracket burst (or whatever you want). Set the release to whatever schedule you like, in bulb mode with an exposure long enough to take 3 shots. This $30 unit will do the trick: http://amzn.com/B017GY5KWA

I shoot macro photography and the A7R3 actually loses the 3rd party app to create focus stacks. So, I have more reason than you to be annoyed with Sony.

1. Depends on how much work you want to do and how wide your scene's dynamic range is. I started shooting raw and reduced my need for bracketing significantly, but there is a definite use for those kinds of shots; I just haven't been chasing them too hard.
   
   
2. It'll take practice and experience for sure. The even more effective solution is to support your exposure work with software in post to really smooth out the subtle exposure differences between shots. Have you heard of http://lrtimelapse.com? Liok around for some tutorial videos on how it works. As far as intervalometers go, this is a pretty cheap and wireless solution that might be worth playing with (though you'll want to triple check that it's compatible with your rig). The problem is that it still might be hard to meter your scene without touching your camera, and the very subtle changes in light and exposure settings are tricky to balance.

Is this a mechanical intervalometer?

If not, would you be able to help at all?

I had that same issue! I bought a cheap remote on Amazon and it is amazing, fixed all of the issues, and honestly, I prefer it. It’s wireless and has a physical shutter button instead of a display with no feedback, plus it doesn’t make any changes to your settings because it basically acts like a normal trigger

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017GY5KWA

That's not what wifi means; it has nothing to do with a data plan. You can communicate between your camera and your phone by wifi.

You don't need infrared--most cameras don't have that. You can also use a radio remote, like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Pixel-TW-283-S2-Wireless-Shutter/dp/B017GY5KWA