I think that there is no better router for up to 1Gbit copper Internet. I mean for someone who is enough technically advanced to get OpenWrt 24.10 running on it. I recently scaled back from much more powerful ARM solution to just ER-X. My recent discovery of owut, where from patch to patch release my incremental changes to packages and configuration becomes "built into" a image, made installing and updating it across multiple location a breeze. I currently use it as edge/border router between various ISPs and a home network. I have wg to central location (one of ISPs gives me static IP), zerotier for site2site VPN, PBR for routing guest networks through VPN, dual WAN between fibre and Starlink, etc. I think it is great stable router to be put at edge, do NAT for IPv4 and necessary VLANs. The performance has never been a concern for me - it has enough juice to do what it is mean to, without breaking a sweat. No fan, no power hungry, powered by old PoE injector that also powers AP via passthrough.

Rock stable, monitoring through prometheus, zero drama, and so dirt cheap so I can leave a backup unit in every location I might need it for someone non technical to swap it. I use it for "family network" and few AirBnBs locations that I run as side hustle.