I didn’t even know you could get a router that straight-up requires you to use a wifi password and doesn’t even allow for open unsecured wifi. The thing is though, it actually does let you set the wifi signal strength as low as 10%—something I’ve never seen outside of OpenWrt and such (which, mind you, does allow for open unsecured wifi).
For context, that “NM64” in my username originates from my historic full username of “Nintendo Maniac 64” which I’ve used since the early 2000s. This is key because I have a self-softmodded Nintendo DS “phat” (the DS Lite was never physically comfortable for me to hold, but even the “phat” was a comfort downgrade vs the non-SP non-micro GBA), and the Nintendo DS was known for only supporting open unsecured wifi and WEP encryption.
And before you say “muh security”, the router still lets you select WEP encryption and, as we know, using WEP even a decade ago, let alone in 2023, is more akin to giving you the illusion of security rather than actual security.
As someone that primarily uses coaxial-ethrnet adapters for my PC internet connections, I only turn on wifi when I actually need it e.g. for something like a Nintendo DS. This means that, in combination with the limiting of the wifi rage to something small and the fact that I actually do in fact live in the boondocks, I really don’t think being forced to use WEP over open unsecured wifi is making my life better and is instead just introducing extra inconvenience.
(for reference, the OpenWrt website does not list this router anywhere as being a compatible model. Also my primary router is one that is not only currently running OpenWrt but is configured to have a physical wifi toggle switch in combination with the wifi strength turned down to its minimum)
(also for reference, softmodded DS systems can still play online games, among other internet activities—eat your heart out smartphones, I was doing IRC plus listening to internet radio with my then two softmodded DS systems since at least 2007…multi-tasking wasn’t a thing, so I did internet radio on one DS and then IRC or the like on the other; also one of the DS systems died from malicious liquid damage inflicted by someone else around a year later, because this was right at the end of when tech was still considered “uncool and nerdy” so us computer geeks still got picked on for such things)