Yes right, our home equipment and my business laptop is still at AC level, our iPhones do support AX and that's it. On top of that my ISP subscription is "only" 150 /150 (we scaled down from 600 / 600 and saved some cost), the Internet and Wi-Fi speed is sufficient for our use, including interactive TV.
No reason yet to upgrade to AX, of course the next router will be AX or even BE (Wi-Fi 7).
Another reason to upgrade can be EOL / no more security updates.
I think, it is not aboat "want" but more aboat " still have".
The router was very popular in its glory days; this means there is still a huge number of people that are using it. The router is still great for (above) average use of WIFI, coverage is good, HW is enough for 500 mbps (or even more) internet connection... Based on all of that I think it would be great, if the support would still exist not by adding new functions or features, but at least in the means of security patches and fixes. Not everyone "needs" an AX signal or mega ninja router HW...
In my case it still serves me great as the Aimesh node, I am very happy with it.
I understand, but there's a huge difference between early AC and AC Wave 2 hardware. For anyone to consider purchasing the former product (today) is insane or doesn't know what they're buying,
The GT-AC2900/AC86U
can be better than a lot of AX class routers, especially low end ones or stuff that doesn't have a BCM 43684/6715 4x4 main radio.
I get the notion of it being a good product in an existing household, but I'm sorta baffled Amazon still carries them with a $130 USD price tag.
Even if the argument was AI mesh expansion/wired backhaul, there is no logic to why anyone should consider a "new" 68U when theres a much superior ACW2 option @ 90-100 USD.
PS: I don't blame people for skipping AX. The two GT-AX6000 I've tried perform rather poorly for penetration in my home.. and that's a "high end" dual band gen2 AX design.
Not say the GT-AX6000 is terrible for everyone, but it was only able to match my GT-AC2900 for 5G throughput at range at fixed distances. I feel like something is broken (poor beamfoaming?) or some newer hardware combo just isn't working out in my environment.
Relatively speaking, the AX86S exceeded my expectations.. 200mbps higher in same locations. It's quite odd.
The only downside? Has the same base hardware as my former router... 4906 dual core + 512MB. I wanted something a bit better, but I guess I can upgrade sooner since I only paid $148 + tax.