These are my observations regarding the challenges associated with firmware management.
The primary issue with the Deco product line involves hardware and firmware fragmentation. For example, the X50 model has five different hardware versions, each requiring separate firmware updates. This situation complicates management across approximately 58 different models within the United States. Additionally, this does not account for models in other countries, which may not be available in the U.S. Currently, TP-Link lacks a standardized update strategy and a unified hardware versioning system, which would facilitate automatic and staged firmware updates (e.g., transitioning from version 1.10.0 to 1.11.0).
I have recommended that the organization establish standardized hardware platforms to streamline firmware updates across all models. This approach would be implemented incrementally until full standardization is achieved. Although this has been discussed internally, no formal approval has been obtained.
Organizational factors, rather than any form of discrimination, appear to influence these challenges. The size of the engineering team is not explicitly clear; however, moderators such as David, Carl, Ryan, and Riley do not have influence over firmware development schedules or prioritization. The current focus is on bug fixes, security enhancements, and recruiting beta testers. Firmware development remains the primary challenge. Efforts to address these issues are ongoing.
Tagging @David-TP in this post he may be able to provide you with more detail.