I have been running OpenWRT 19.07.10 on a TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v1.8 in a very basic configuration (it just replaces the ISP NAT device and provides WLAN for ~3-7 devices, only additional package is luci-ssl) without any issues.
Although it does not fulfill the RAM requirements for 21.02 and up (32MB < 64MB), there are official builds for 21.02 & 22.03, and 22.03.3 is listed as the current release on the device page.
Does someone have experience with running these 21.02 or 22.03 builds on this device? Especially regarding stability when using the device as described above.
Do these builds contain LuCI or do they require configuration via SSH?
If the provided builds do not run well due to <64MB RAM, are there any packages that could be omitted from the build (e.g. using the firmware selector) or removed after installation without compromising security & stability? For example, I do not need WPA3 support.
...or are there any unneeded services I can safely disable after installation to save RAM?
Will I be able to go back to 19.07.10 if I encounter problems with 21.02/22.03? I suppose flashing 19.07.10 via TFTP should work as a last resort, correct?
Does someone have experience with running these 21.02 or 22.03 builds on this device? Especially regarding stability when using the device as described above.
If its listed in the device page this means it works and its stable
Do these builds contain LuCI or do they require configuration via SSH?
Yes they have luci
If the provided builds do not run well due to <64MB RAM, are there any packages that could be omitted from the build (e.g. using the firmware selector) or removed after installation without compromising security & stability? For example, I do not need WPA3 support.
...or are there any unneeded services I can safely disable after installation to save RAM?
Im not sure about that one, but i think yes
Will I be able to go back to 19.07.10 if I encounter problems with 21.02/22.03? I suppose flashing 19.07.10 via TFTP should work as a last resort, correct?
Yes ofcorse, you can use the luci, the ssh Console or the tftp to roll back to old version if you want to
The image is (still) getting built, because this device happens to have enough flash for the resulting image - the build system itself doesn't know about its RAM size. The existence of the image on the server as part of 21.02.x/ 22.03.x does not indicate that it's actually working, just the the image still fits and that no one complained loud enough for the device support to be disabled.
https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/432_warning still stands and is an issue for this device, you are below minimum system requirements and all bets are off. While you're still likely (but not guaranteed) to succeed booting, RAM will run out while doing more extensive things (wireless is RAM hungry, such is luci or sysupgrade itself (as it needs to hold the new image in memory, before writing it to flash)). Therefore I would strongly recommend a hardware upgrade (replacement), before upgrading OpenWrt - obviously you can have a look at how far you can go, but you will hit (hard-) limits rather soon, without doing anything special.