I must be missing some reason- because it doesnt make sense to me.
If my home was wired with cat6, I wouldnt worry about dealing with Netgear's (fake) mesh. I'd be happy as a clam as id be able to run some kick-ass AP's like Ubiquities.
What am I missing here? What's the advantage of hardwiring Orbi?
You're not missing anything. Wired backhaul on a product designed from the ground up with a kick-ass wireless backhaul just doesn't make sense. That wireless backhaul is a big fraction of the cost. It's a waste to not use it.
But there were just too many people thinking they wanted it, and competitors that were doing it, that Netgear had no choice but to put it in.
As you said, there are many other more effective and cheaper solutions.
Well, I really wish they would have focussed on critical functionality (you know- like passwords working, routers not rebooting and satelites staying connected) rather than "me too" features that are useless....
I've been doing the math this week (while waiting for Netgear to fix this thing) on how much it would cost to have a handymay pull wires threough all 3 floors of our house. I'm starting to think the premium I paid for Orbi is going to come damn close to a superior hardwired solution....that works.
