I've been using custom firmware on and off for 20 years. I found dd-wrt and Tomato much easier to use than openwrt. Specifically, I think openwrt luci should reach feature and ease parity with major AIO router+AP vendors (linksys).
btw, LucI is a terrible, terrible, horrible name. You could have a gun to my head and I couldn't tell you what it means. Even after glancing at the wiki page I don't know. Regular people, who aren't engineers, like having names for things they use constantly. The lucI vs lucL ambiguity is absolutely atrocious. Even something as simple as Lucy would be much more memorable and avoid pointless ambiguity. Clearly the name doesn't mean much (i.e., isn't an important abbreviation) if the wiki can't even explain what it is.
I have avoided guest wifi entirely because it's a huge pain and doesn't work in openwrt.
I also bought a dumb AP because wifi in owrt is awful.
Me buying a dumb-ish (non owrt) switch is also possibly related.
CAKE / traffic shaping / QOS (many ways of reaching anti-bufferbloat) for me is the killer feature of owrt. it is extremely powerful to tell someone "you don't need a new $300 router, you need better software on your existing $100 router" (enthusiasts at 1Gbps excluded). owrt could be the de facto bufferbloat, n00b friendly, "smarter way to internet" firmware. instead it's much closer to a bare Arduino breadboard and some spare wires. It's extremely powerful and extremely complicated. This is a huge missed opportunity and cuts openwrt's potential reach down to about 1% of what it could be. There isn't a person I know that I would recommend owrt to. Back in 2005 everyone and their mother was installing dd-wrt.
These things should be default:
- anti-bufferbloat
- 1.1.1.1 DNS or similar privacy-focused DNS. I can't remember if I ever asked why DNS isn't defaulted.
- DNS over HTTPS (DoH) default
- other hardening I'm not aware of
owrt could be "the private and secure router firmware" but it ignores this market and lets people sink in a sea of complication. this has real implications for end users and makes them less safe. Why? Anyone who knows what they're doing can change these defaults. We should protect those who don't know what they're doing.
bonus:
- admin over hardwire toggle in webui. once your system is set up, and hopefully for most people on openwrt, you won't need the web console on wifi
- guest wifi with minimal ability for guests to enter the main network
- one or multiple standard boards (the new dev board is very exciting, kind of ambiguous to end users right now). Every router I buy I get told "oh lol, not a lot of people use that, good luck supporting it".