if i do not instal usteer or dawn, just keep both wireless ssid name for 2.4ghz and 5ghz same, and enable the fast transition from luci in wireless ssid settings, will it work like band steering?
Or i have to have usteer/dawn installed?
is the same as on other access point vendors in default dumb behavior: clients then passively tend to connect to the stronger signal or whatever comes first in their internal list, which usually is 2.4 GHz.
That is, what tools like usteer try to address: it forces clients actively into a certain radio, based on more sophisticated criterias.
Roaming decisions are always made by the client, which decides which network to use. usteer/ dawn or other methods of band-steering can only try to nudge the clients into a particular/ preferred direction - be it passively, by giving the client more information about the BSSID (expected throughput, connected clients, etc.) via 802.11k/v, making roaming less disruptive and easier palatable via 802.11r - or actively, by forcefully kicking clients from the non-preferred BSSID(s).
Even in the absence of 802.11k/v/r or active bandsteering, modern clients tend to make decent roaming decisions, sticky clients or clients preferring the stronger-but-slower 2.4 GHz BSSID over the 5 GHz one 'should' mostly be a thing of the past. In most cases active bandsteering is not necessary, adding (passive) 802.11k/v information may be beneficial, although few clients will look at that (at least no harm done), 802.11r often introduces more issues with non-behaving clients which don't know what 802.11r is. Managing active bandsteering is a bit more complex and involved, it may also be at odds with some clients (by declining 2.4 GHz connectivity, some clients may not succeed connecting).
Bandsteering becomes more interesting with lots of moving clients, roaming between >>3 APs (ideally even using directional antennas) over a larger area.
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So, my laptop (running debian 12) prefers the 5 GHz one, but when I turn on the AP the 2.4GHz band activates well before the 5GHz one, the laptop connects to 2.4GHz and it doesn't roam to 5GHz when it becomes available (unless I manually disconnect and reconnect it).
Is there a solution?
Currently I have just one AP (planning to install a second one) with the 802.11r active on both frequencies.
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Simplest: Boot the AP a few minutes before the laptop...
I have usteer installed on my 3 APs but it's not entirely clear to me if it does much, TBH. My clients seem to be well behaved even without it.
that's not the solution I was looking for 
I thought that enabling the 802.11r options would be enough, but now I see in the wiki that usteer can be used alongside it, I'll try.
Well, I installed usteer and my laptop switched seamlessly from 2.4ghz to 5ghz when the latter became available.
Some WiFi professionals say that 802.11r should be only enabled when WPA2/3-enterprise is enabled, because it takes a significant time to associate with such networks. Otherwise with WPA2/3-PSK auth is very quick, so 802.11r isn't usually worth it. As it was already said, 802.11r doesn't in any way encourage stations to roam, but only can make the final roaming step – auth – faster. The first step always belongs to the station.
When it comes to proper roaming, it's very useful to reduce power of WiFi APs to values similar to your stations. Smartphones often use 12-15 dBm. I'm running my radios with 15 dBm @2.4 GHz and 18-20 dBm @5 GHz. With such settings the signal level might be similar enough for your station to choose to switch to 5 GHz by itself without usteer.
If you have multiple APs, you want to have something like -65-70 dBm signal in a signal level midpoint between APs.