Netgear becoming more customer friendly?

I just went to the support section, and found I could sign up for an extended warranty and support of my RBK853 - is Netgear becoming more customer friendly?

Before you had to get Pro support when you bought the system, and couldn't renew it after Pro support expired. It's like they were saying, "Okay, you paid $1K for your RBK853 and we'll support it for a couple of years for some extra $$$ - now go out and buy an RBK953 for $1.5K and we'll support that for a couple of years."

I also notice that the community website's been updated - no extraneous model number for posts, and on my Mac I don't have to go through acrobatics to hit the notification bell at the top of the screen.

If Netgear is softening their stance and becoming more customer friendly, I just may buy my next mesh from Netgear when it comes time to replace my internet infrastructure.

P.S. I'm getting thread support in my Apple TV 4K arriving today, so I guess thread support in the modem becomes less of an issue.