We have April 2024. Vendors offer WiFI 7 hardware, at least WiFI 6E.
Their drawback: They still do not account for complex setups (multiple external IP adresses, distributed backend routing situation, etc.) And: They all offer "easy setup" over mobile phones that require registration and limit control.
OpenWRT on the other hand offers a versatile and secure (see Cisco to know what secure is) router OS, fully configurable, extensible, lean.
Its drawback: It runs on outdated hardware that cannot even be purchased on second-hand platforms any more.
With home office becoming ubiquitous, it is essential to have state-of-the-art hardware and suitable software to meet requirements. Having a 10+ year old hardware dealing with sensitive gatekeeping 24/7/365 cannot be considered reliable.
My question: Are there any plans to support modern router hardware? (I think about the top 5 vendors - Netgear, Linksys, TP-Link, ... and their top-of-the-line router model)
Development happens at the pace of the relevant developers, they are putting their own money on the shelf to buy their hardware (so excessive early adopter's pricing does not help) and they put in the hours (month+) of development work necessary. They are rarely sponsored with hardware and neither get early access to pre-release hardware.
If you are looking for new hardware you either need to go with something that is supported already - or need to do the development yourself, betting on future hardware support rarely succeeds (and usually takes months++, if at all).
What are you missing with second generation WiFi 6 devices like GL-MT6000 and GL-MT3000 in real world small office home office scenarios? Please sell me real world everyday perceived user experience benefits of WiFi 7 in 2024. I am curious to hear about your use case where you urgently need WiFi 7 in this year.
@fakemanhk: I chose my question carefully and would like to reiterate: what modern router hardware is supported by OpenWRT? (extend by adding, hardware that is available in Europe).
as to your question: Can vendors create OS friendly hardware: Yes they can, but they don't want to. Simple economics prevent this. But that was not what I asked.