I really wonder why wpad-basic/hostapd-basic are the default packages openwrt ships?
Nowadays Mesh setup are common and in any Environment with more than one AP seamless Roaming is a requirement, so 802.11r/v/k need to be in place.
Flash size limit is no longer a Problem, at least the few kilobytes difference between wpad-basic-wolfssl and wpad-wolfssl.
Openwrt should support common state-of-the-art-features out of the box.
The additional features aren't needed, if you only have one device...?
You can create a customized image, using the online image builder.
There are plenty of devices with 8 MB flash, some of which have rather 'unfortunate' OEM partitionining leaving you with 7 MB or less - given that the default images already weigh just over 6 MB, there's no margin for being 'wasteful' for rarely used features.
We probably should have small_flash per device instead of per target.
I'm kind of doing that with custom meta-packages (foo-8m, foo-16m, foo-32m) added to DEVICE_PACKAGES for my own needs already, but especially wpad/ hostapd/ wpa_supplicant don't really lend itself to this, due to the rather complex package dependencies (different build variants, ssl/ tls providers and opkg not really excelling at disentangling this).
Well who uses only one AP?
The use case out there is to improve WiFi coverage throughout the whole home. Hardware manufacturers are pushing Mesh Kits into the market.
Openwrt must keep on here and provide a free OSS-solution that uses open and interoperable Standards and frees users from proprietary Mesh-vendor-login-effects.
People with wired only routers?
Marvell based WRT*, RPis, x86s, devices with Broadcom wifi, to name a few.