[tjoff]

My expectation is far far lower. And those that are might not still be decent after an upgrade (and you won't know if the hardware or software you buy will be of another revision).

Hardware that happens to be popular are often updated to a cheaper variant where the manufacturer rides on the fame and good reviews of the original version.

So you can't even do the research once and expect it to hold for future purchases/replacements.

[takeda]

Well, instead having "expectations", how about just checking it yourself before spreading FUD?

[tjoff]

No amount of FUD comes close to the reality when it comes to home routers.

usrusr explained it nicely. It will likely take years before anyone will realize that the firewall doesn't work at all. Whereas a similarly broken NAT router will be declared DOA.