It really depends on what you want/need. Since I realised that I don't need to only have a single device, it just makes sense to me to have them separated. When

It really depends on what you want/need. Since I realised that I don't need to only have a single device, it just makes sense to me to have them separated. When you want faster wifi, you upgrade the access points. If you need router with better capabilities, you buy a new router and still have your perfectly well functioning wifi. I like OpenWRT and not needing to research whether some device's wifi will work is a plus for me. You can of course still have a router with wifi capabilities, I just found that separating them makes upgrading to new devices easier. I can also keep using my older devices - I used an ASUS NT-14U router for a few years. It was great, it had plenty of RAM and flash for the time, OpenWRT run great on it. Then I wanted to upgrade to 5GHz wifi, but I just run into problems with router+wifi combos having inferior wifi performance on OpenWRT compared to stock device - usually only half the speed an sometimes even unstable. Then I realised I could just buy new 5GHz APs and keep using my old router. I have been mostly happy with my home network since that realisation. I bought some TP-Link Omada "small business" APs (EAP245 and EAP225-outdoor) and knock on wood I didn't have any problems that I can recall for a few years already. People also usually recommend Ubiquiti APs and devices, but I have never really gotten into that and the TP-Link offering seems to be a better bang for my buck. If you are able to run a wire, do it, even if it means some more initial work or it being a little ugly at some spot. It is just simply more reliable than the other options. Your future self will not thank you, because he will not even realise how smoothly everything is running ;)