Agree - wis there no additional layer of abstraction between autofocus and screen readers? Why is there such a dependency on this unrelated functionality? I’m inclined to see this is a failure of screen readers, and perhaps more broadly the standards on which they are based if they can’t handle what is a reasonable and common use case for normal web browsing.
Yeah I'm all for helping 5% of the population, but not at the expense of the other 95%
Just ignore the standard and do what’s best for the users.
This might get you into a lawsuit if wcag is't followed. Or at least that's what the legal and accessibility team will think.