Planning a WAP build utilizing a Gateworks Ventana GW5200/5220 and understand that I will have to utilize the LEDE v17.01.4 firmware while flashing the SBC (per the device techdata page).
What will I be sacrificing by using this version versus planning around a system that can utilize OpenWRT 19.07.1? Is there documentation that I could reference to narrow down my capes/lims of using 17 as opposed to a system that is able to utilize 19?
EDIT: This will be my first OpenWRT implementation, would there be any additional steps not outlined in the basic user guides if I decided to move forward with this build?
Mainly bugs/security/maintenance, since 17 and even 18 are considered "work as is" so hardly any dev/package maintainer will backport any fixes/mayor updates. So if you want to profit from fixes/updates 19 is the way to go, if you don't want to backport/verify patches for 17/18 yourself.
Also packages like Samba4/Wireguard are not available for 17, so if you want the latest stable services you need 19 or live with whats available right now in 17/18.
PS: From experience, the time it takes to solve a possible bug/problem in a unmaintained/old openwrt version usually outweighs the extra cost for new consumer grade hardware, that supports the latest stable branch.