Streamline Upgrade; Old NightHawk to New NightHawk

First off,

                 Thank you to FURRYe38, coolwifi, and CrimpOn for your responses!

Done enough router setups to understand the need for having records (screenshots, etc) of existing router configuration for new router setup.

CrimpOn has the closest understanding of my situation, although my situation is less extensive than his.  I'm closer to his situation than coolwifi's.  I totally agree with FURRYe38's comment about "...been this way for years and seems industry wide."  But does it always have to be this way forever?

Not always the best in explaining myself, and probably confused folks with my recommendation.

The audience for my post includes BOTH users such as yourselves, as well as Netgear Staff and engineers who read these feedback forums.

Indeed, my recommendation could only be accomplished by Netgear -as they alone have full understanding of the software and hardware for their routers.  Not really wanting a "cross compatible .cfg" file (FURRYe38) -way too difficult to implement/maintain.  There is commonality in configurations as far as fairly standardized settings (eg, naming SSID's, etc).

Granted, a new router would need to be powered up and recognize attached devices on your network(s).  But once that is done, why not (Netgear staff and engineers) have the capability for the router to upload a file (possibly in MS Excel csv format, etc) that would contain the 50+ entries for the LAN setup table with the reserved IP addresses for devices, all "User Friendly" device names/types/categories, etc, and then the router would modify applicable settings as necessary.  Don't have to necessarily use only the .cfg file approach to streamline the setup.

To make router setup more efficient, less error-prone, do not need to have an all-inclusive utility that does everything from beginning to end.  Have the utility feature/program 'bite off' and perform smaller chunks of the setup process (especially portions susceptible to typing errors).

Again, really appreciate your comments/feedback (hope Netgear staff and engineers are reading).