And even a 10+ year old b/g router can handle 4k streaming.
For consumers that just watch Netflix (even at 4k), latency is irrelevant and you just need the bandwidth to be high enough; for these usecases, sure, a 10-year old router is fine. This is the consumer that keeps their Android phone for 2-3 years until it breaks, and only then upgrades.
I don't think the GP was claiming that everyone needs to upgrade frequently, just that for some consumers it makes sense.
Both segments can coexist, and so it's valid for different products/companies to tailor their offerings to one or both. It's pretty clear that you shouldn't buy Google products if you want to set-and-forget for 10 years. But if you're going to upgrade to the newest revision of smart-home gadget in less than 5 years anyway, then Google's product-ADD isn't a particularly relevant negative to you.
Definitely a factor to make sure that consumers are aware of when purchasing though!
I've been on a reliable average 7ms and peak 9ms latency for twelve years. It's not necessary to replace your router hardware to get low latencies.
I agree you shouldn’t rip out 5e cables to install 6e if what you have works for you and there aren’t any substantial improvements.
To that end, I’ve personally skipped Wi-Fi 6 and will wait for 6E before considering an upgrade. Even then, I’d like to have at minimum 3 devices that support Wi-Fi 6 before I upgrade. I’ve two such devices right now, so it’s not out of the question for me.
I’m in favour of keeping devices automatically updated even years later, but I suspect the only economical way of doing so is emulating devices in VMs, a giant test suite and automatic security update testing (no humans required beyond reviewing code diffs). But setting up that kind of automated testing infrastructure is a high bar for most companies, so it’s cheaper to put the cost on the consumer to consume again within 3-5 years for the next product update lifecycle...
I get this question every time when someone sees my latency, yes it is on WiFi. I don't use cabled and haven't for at least 6-7 years. My latency was always low except when I broke something in my local networking stack.
There are at this point 40+ other visible access points in my vicinity, and my router is two rooms away. My walls are made of concrete or brick.
Everyone should stop thinking WiFi is slow, because it just isn't.
Sure, if you're wired, there's no benefit to upgrading your router.
Do you buy all new devices when you buy a new WiFi router? I don’t.
Previously I did buy a few new devices to get 5GHz support from an ac router, after I moved to a location that had very poor 2.4Ghz connectivity. It can happen but it’s rare, I’d say?