The problem is getting support for Wifi 6E on your devices. Not to mention, to really benefit from 6E, you need a mesh network, preferably, powerline backed. And a router in every room. OpenWRT can run just fine even on older cpus(depending on what you use), the big thing that cuts you off from updates is the flash memory. More flash memory is future proof for updates and more features you can install. That said, does OpenWRT even support Wifi 6 yet? Due to the whole driver stuff. And some routers can't ever run openwrt due to no drivers available. That works for pc, but for PC you can just do ethernet/powerline, the real ones you want are mobile devices. Try upgrading those for $10. This is why I fear when PCs start going ARM. Cheap upgrades will be a thing of the past. Not because ARM doesn't support upgrades, simply because the ecosystem is centered around everything being embedded.
openwrt is already wifi6E. Openwrt is the OS, not a brand of hardware. Wifi6 have been out for many years. You buy a wifi6E router, in install the os and install the openwrt in it, and update the drivers or firmware and your good. Its like windows 10 will definitely support ax200 or ax210 networks cards before their release. Though imagine that when spf++ been released and big cooperates have to wait for years for openwrt or other os for updates of firmware/drivers. That would be devastating, same with openwrt. Most router companies ships a simplified version of openwrt or ddwrt. Thought, open wrt support relies on the cpu, ram and others. That's why I said not buying a router that is slower than a quad core 2.2, even phones today run faster and 8 cores. Low end devices that runs with dual core and single core processor will give you frustration. Some lowend router don't even provide USB, it's impossible to flash it. Though there are some old 802.11ac router able to support wifi6 just by installing openwrt, and change the settings and configs. JD(dot)Com used to sold some back in 2019 November for 10 usd per router under their own brand, a few of my friends were playing it. Social media were overflowing with wifi6. Thats called bridge, mesh are usually wireless, unless server clusters. And meshes are super expensive when wired, usually big cooperates go for bus. Let me qoute my self. Wifi6 is already really cheap now, it's been 3 years and the price have already dropped to 1/4 of their original price for some models.
Ah, no. When did I say openwrt is a brand of hardware? The difference between windows and openwrt is that windows comes with a majority of computers, while routers that come out of box with openwrt is few. Most of the time you gotta install it yourself. And for that you need proper drivers. And that depends on the CPU and developers. Currently, the only CPUs that support OpenWRT are a few mediatek processors(MT7621 and MT7622), so here is a short list of routers that support it: https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi And I don't think any of them support 6E yet. Cool story, but no. I can even speak from personal experience. I bought an Intel ax210 card for my new pc, and found that it didn't work on my linux! I only managed to get it to work when I got the latest kernel 5.11 which isn't an LTS so I had to be on bleeding edge. It then broke again when updated, so I had to downgrade my firmware, and they only fixed it a few month later on latest firmware. OpenWRT is on Kernel 4.14.221, which is WAY too old for AX. Thus to make it work, someone has to backport it to the old kernel. And the Intel AX210 still hasn't been backported to many official distributions. The big companies don't need to wait. It is open source, and they can get the drivers from the manufacturers if they need. It isn't impossible for boards to have features locked by manufacturers. That said, which router are you talking about?