It seems a little unfair (and wasteful) that you didn't consider simply using decent third-party software on the TP-Link hardware you already owned, but rather

It seems a little unfair (and wasteful) that you didn't consider simply using decent third-party software on the TP-Link hardware you already owned, but rather bought new hardware and then started using third-party software. ASUS consumer networking hardware is no higher quality than TP-Link consumer networking hardware, and neither of them (nor anyone else operating in the consumer networking hardware market) provides high-quality software out of the box.