It at least offers more security than the usual alternative on a consumer router of the manufacturer's OS (i.e. something updated once a decade running linux 2.

It at least offers more security than the usual alternative on a consumer router of the manufacturer's OS (i.e. something updated once a decade running linux 2.6 with GPL-violating unreleased patches so you can't update it yourself, all written in C by the contractor that bid the lowest).