Hah, yeah right. The general consumer simply doesn't care they can't flash open source firmware. For every 1 star review from someone who does care, there'll be plenty of 5 star reviews from regular users who have their needs filled by the router with default firmware.

There is no way to comply with those regulations without prohibiting software updates on current generation of WiFi chips because they don't enforce regulatory constraints in hardware - it's driver's job.

I expect all other vendors to do the same, at least for now. Market can't sort this out.

I'll make sure my next router is not TP-Link. I'm upgrading in about a month.

The cheap option is to lock down everything, other manufacturers will follow suit.

The average person doesn't care.

We thought the same thing about privacy and user data mining, but look where we are.

It seems it would be only a matter of time before other manufacturers join TP-Link on this.

They all have to do this.