i've had a little bit of free time with work lately so i decided to try another target for fun.
i bought 2 x mt6000. they are based on the mediatek filogic soc. pretty close to the same class as these ipq807x devices.
after using them for 2 weeks i am sending them back to amazon.
this nss build + the 301w are better. they are fairly close, but strictly speaking about wifi:
the ipq807x has a more stable connection. when i do transfers that are wifi speed limited, i typically see 180-190MB/s fairly flat (0-50GB transfers) with the ipq807x.
the mediatek filogic has a higher peak, the transfers frequently hit 215+MB/s, but they are much choppier. frequently dropping below 150MB/s, if not lower.
i know its hard to compare since there is more to a router than just the soc, but after quite a bit of tinkering... the ipq807x + this nss build in my opinion is still the best that non proprietary (...software wise) wifi routers have to offer. and yes i know the 301w is 10gbe and the mt6000 is 2.5gbe etc etc etc... but my nas cant really push too much past 250-300MB/s anyways so its sort of a moot point in my use case. my wan connection is 500/100 so both devices can handle that without any problems.
just though id post my insight in case anyone else was thinking about giving the other 'big' soc a shot.
edit : i suppose its worth mentioning that the mt6000 plus all of the other filogic based devices have quite a larger community around it. larget than the ipq807x one by the looks of it. so progress with issues witll probably be faster than with the ipq807x. also mediatek looks to be much more involved in the various oss bits around their products. more so than qca by the looks of it anyways. so maybe in a year or so the story will be different. and of course theres the new filogic soc that came out fairly recently (bpi r4) which looks to be quite the beast. but its early days there so all the usual caveats apply.