3 was always a dud as a router since it only have a 200Mbit port.
But 4 isn’t old for router job. I would say 80% of the supported ToH is stone-age old in age comparison.
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Raspberry PI 3/4B/5?.....even Orange Pi, such PCBA:
Pros:
- ROM/RAM no limits
- HDMI for LCD moniter
- USB ports
- built-in BT/BLE
- self-make, could run Linux
- GPIO / I2C...ready to use
- reasonable price
Cons:
- poor WiFi
- Ethernet port only one
- power connector / TF-card connector not reliable for years long-time
- Fan, hot still not a good things
- Casing, add your cost
Usage:
- prototype / demo kit
- openwrt app development / debug
- 3rd party app test / verification
- IOT device debug bridge
- DIY fans
Little surprised no one mentioned the BPI-R3. Perhaps everyone else knows something I don't?
There are also NanoPi, but RPi4 has a pretty low price before COVID pandemic, there might be lots of owners want to re-purpose it. But what you mentioned is correct, there are many SBC alternatives in recent 1-2 yrs that make RPi 4 not very competitive in this field (I own various RPi, and NanoPi, also BPI-R4)
It can be a very reasonable wired-only router, however, with alderlake-n/ n100 devices with four 2.5GBASE-T ports starting around 120 EUR delivered (for the complete system, ready to be used), the price-feature ratio isn't that convincing.
Would you have some example links for those? I am having trouble finding any devices with those specs at that price. Would be much appreciated!
I used to have Raspi4B as OpenWRT router: in the beginning I used a managed switch, in order to use one port as WAN and LAN. Then I got UE300 USB adapter to use it as a separate WAN port: I needed kmod-usb-net-rtl8152. But then, as I upgraded OpenWRT, UE300 didn't work right away, because kmod-usb-net-rtl8152 had to be updated, too. Now, I don't remember if I had to use a managed switch again in order to reinstall it, or there was a way to install kmod-usb-net-rtl8152 otherwise...... in other words, if someone plans to use Raspi 4B as a router with a USB dongle as a WAN port, does he still need a managed switch for an initial setup?
Here are some from aliexpress:
This has cr*p cooling, but it's workable if you're not stressing it much. I have one of this.
Then there's the 2 port variant, from cwwk. It's good as well, i have one of that as well. Better bios than the first. These are passive. There are more expensive 4-5 port variants from cwwk too. Just search aliexpress. Also, aliexpress does have a lot of coupons, discounts etc, you can usually shave off at least ~$30 from a $150-$200 order if you can wait for the next promo.
Also, i totally agree with that previous sentiment. N100 router boxes essentially created a price ceiling for arm sbc routers. The higher they cost, the less sense it makes compared to x86.
You didn't use Attended Sysupgrade to help you generating the required upgrade package? Or you can use firmware selector to include kmod-usb-net-rtl8152 which also works.
Thank you very much for the hint ! I had no idea ! That helps in updating openwrt in general, even though I don't use Raspi-Router anymore. I just had a list of opkgs I installed and did everything manually, and it didn't even always work right away! (because sometimes required additional packages were different: e.g., I had a bit hard time making wireguard work, as I updated OpenWRT.)
Thank you for the links. The cheapest option there is 160€ for no ram, no storage. That is a long shot from 120€ delivered for a complete system ready to used 
I bought the CWWK Magic, with that big heatsink, I tried to put Linux on it with stress-ng testing for 1hr, core temperature was at most 62C, built-in dual 2.5GbE, and I am going to plug dual 10G SFP+ card .
Well, if you're ok with 1gbit lan, and okay with active cooling, this is always an option too. I have one, just for backup purposes. Point being, that it really starts around ~120-130 eur ( with coupons) for the cheapest devices with n100/n95. 2.5g adds costs, passive cooling too. More than 2 nics too.
Thanks, I will think about it.
Imho for today is worthless since You can grab new n100 intel utm and live in peace without those usb nic's , now it can be again used for watering plants in garden. Yep it was all the time dumb idea to make router from it.
I found using the dongle as the WAN port causes issues; I thin it is better to use the built in ethernet for wan and the dongle for LAN.
@psherman knows best about VLANs but I don't think you need a managed switch for them.
You just add all the drivers you will need into the Firmware Builder and then it works fine.
Anytime you are using VLANs and passing a trunk into a switch, it should be a managed switch -- otherwise problems may occur (sometimes minor, sometimes major). I simplify this and say it must be managed, but for completeness, there are unmanaged switches that can pass 802.1q tags without choking. However, if the intent is to 'split out' the VLANs on different ports and/or to allow non-VLAN aware devices to join tagged networks, a managed switch is absolutely required.
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I have never thought about building a firmware on my own.... I just download one I need:)
I guess, with something like Firmware Builder, one can write the config file and include it in the firmware before flashing, together with all the necessary packages, then, theoretically, it's possible to set up a Raspi-Router with USB dongle without ever using vlan (thus also without a managed switch). Is it right?
I'm asking out of curiosity, I currently don't use Raspi-Router. But I was wondering if it's good to have a spare managed switch around in case I need a Raspi-Router again.
@fakemanhk Now I looked at firmware selector: https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/
I don't see any option of including opkg.....
But I will try attended sysupgrade soon on my ERX.
Use this link.
And use Customize installed packages and/or first boot script
Add your drivers at the end.
Wow, thanks !! I overlooked "customize...." thing at first.
With this, though, one has to know the names of the packages for the new firmware exactly. Sometimes packages are renamed or structured differently, and it's not going to find the right ones for me in that case.....
I noticed that OpenWRT for Raspi has some packages for GPIO. What's GPIOs for, when Raspi is a router? Can it still do things like water detector?
RPi4 is a SBC; it can be a router, among other things.