As for the OP, we need some sort of regulation or certification board that mandates & attests vendors will actually provide 10+ years of security updates (and not just backports) with frequent third party audits for such critical equipment.
We already have well established projects like OpenWrt and SONiC which could be the basis with appropriate funding and added support.
That would be amazing. I’d also love to see some sort of verified boot on consumer routers, and just other security features we have on desktop and mobile operating systems these days, like a secure element etc.
Of course I don’t use those, and I’m not claiming it’s a better option. I just brought it up in case you already have an Asus router.
edit. I wanted to clarify why I mentioned MerlinWRT. It’s an easy switch. The user interface is similar to the standard one, but it has many good extras, like a terminal directly in the web interface. All the bugs have been fixed, and it is a much better option than the standard firmware. Your settings will transfer over, but of course, I recommend starting fresh. And if you opt out of the policies, all that Trend Micro stuff, or whatever it was, will be gone as long as you don’t use any of the AI features, which are useless anyway.