You can buy a Ruckus r610 for $40 from eBay.
It's not a package deal, but router hardware for Pfsense or OpnSense, or even a Tp link or Unifi device isn't exactly breaking the bank.
It's also vastly superior enough for the Open WRT to not be worth it.
Does OpenWRT appeal to people with a low degree of knowledge, time or skill? Heck no.
The most applicable scenario I can think of is someone who is very knowledgeable and has a lot of time but very little money, but OpenWRT exclusively as a device for people who live in India or Brazil is again not super compelling to *me* as a technological package.
Though I respect conceptually that other people might have different perspectives, I live in a country with an average living standard, so I can't really share it.