Spartan,
First, most us that have been here awhile enjoy helping/answering WiFi questions. So, you are welcome to ask more.
I have had about 10 different manufacture’s router in the past 5 years. I have fun doing this. I buy stuff people have good luck with and play around with it. If I have to, I figure which I like best and sell the other on ebay. yes, I loose money, but I get smarter using the product. I am likening TP-Link best. I recomment TP-Link. (Looks like you don’t need convincing.) TP-Link markets their single routers under Archer, and their Mesh under Deco. FYI, it only takes to be a mesh system.
Now, here’s the better news. With TP-Link’s mesh Decon line, you can grow your mesh system as needed. So, start with two. From your description, I think you need 3 nodes, but start with two. You will be able to pickup a third or fourth later, as need. And every few months, as we all know, prices come down as newer stuff is available. We know from experience you will be able to find a new or used node to add to your mesh later as needed.
I noticed you only mentioned looking at WiFi 6 no WiFi 6e. I am not an engineer, but from my experience, I believe you will not make better your network using 6E over 6, so go with the WiFi 6.
When you start reading multiple articles, ads, propaganda, you find that the number after the AX as in AX1800, AX3000 is a representation of the two bands speed added togehter. 2.4 and 5. BUT, remember 2.4’s speed is almost never faster than 300. Some might claim 400. The very best lab case claims to be 450 Mps, but we never see that. The other part of that number is the 5 GHz speed. Nearly all IoT devices, such as Wyze cameras only connect to 2.4. See the probem? Wyze camera with their 2.4 GHz band are only going to have a speed of about 300-400 Mps And reality is 300 or less.
That’s the reality. So, with your network and all the toys we want to run, how to we maximize our toys on the 2.4 GHz band? By moving as much stuff/toys that we can OFF 2.4 and over to the 5 GHz band. We reduce the traffic on 2.4 so 'stuff" has less traffic to contend with. Not a perfect example, but think rush hour fading to after-rush hour traffic on the highway. Our biggest gains in improving the 2.4 GHz band comes from the stuff we DON’T put on it.
You are still wondering mesh or single router. I like to use this. Think basketball court. For Reference court ends are 'north and south". Where are we going to put the singe router? Yes, in the middel. And at the north and south far boundaries of the court, the signal is going to be weakest? Yes. So, the next best thing to having tow ISP connections (paying for two) and having two single routers at the free throw line in each end. But who wants to pay for two ISP connections, just to feed an IP address to each cable modem to feed to a single router. No one. Why do manufacturers make mesh, design mesh? To sell hardware. But thank you very much, they didn’t just build a better router with mesh, they solved this two ISP issue for us before we started using it.
We can take a two node mesh router system and cover that court with a decent or strong signal, but the single router would be weak at the far ends.
Where would we put each of the two nodes? One center court and one at the “south” free throw line? No, we deprive the “north” end decent signal. Probably still works, but will be weaker. So where to we putt them? Just about the free throw line on each half. And then we discover the “south” end of your property is not able to connect for some/any reason. What to do? Get a third node and put it just past the end of the court on the south end after we join it to our mesh. Now we have three nodes “generally, signal size spaced apart and resolving our issues” But they don’t need to be perfectly physically spaced on the court. This is a lot of rambling with some silly examples, but when we post here, it reaches people that are just starting to learn about WiFi and stuff. I don’t mean to talk down to anyone, but sometimes the examples “click that light on above the head” and they get it. No offense intended to anyone.
Deco’s are all compatible. you want to future proof your investment so you don’t throw stuff out later. So, today, because of prices we buy two WiFi 6 nodes. After we have some time to live with it, we see that we need to add a node. No problem. We shop. We look, and we see its been a year and the price of a WiFi 6e Deco is the same we gave for 1 6 a year go. Do we have to buy another 6? No, we do not. So, buy the 6e, and join it to your mesh. Then ready up, look on YouTube and can see, you can promote the 6e to your primary and make the 6, a secondard node. (Remember, there’s one Main/Primary and you connect it to your cable modem. EVERY thing else becomes secondaries. You can have 4 more nodes and they are all secondaries. And you don’t have to position them physically like around an umbrella to get the coverage/connection. You join to the mesh, then you can move it so they are in a line, not circle.
The best part is the 6 and 6e mesh are 3 bands not 2 bands. 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz. These nodes talk to each other over the 6 GHz band wirelessly or can talk over wire.
Other mesh manufacturers have the same features, but gotta stay within the same manufacturers to join them together.
And some people forget this. When you get your new stuff. Shutdown your old one, unplug it, power it down. Move it to the side. And when you stand up the new one, use same SSID, same WiFi password, AND everything will reconnect automatically. It won’t even know that you swappped out the hardware, if you use same name and password. And don’t wipe the setting on the old one. If worse happens, and you needed to use it, it knows your devices, your devices know it, and they will all also reconnect just like nothing every happened.
Too little? Confusing? Too much?