I've found quite a few threads that are almost all locked

• https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/522470
• https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/598436
• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/184752
• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/166564
• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/558988
• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/244548
• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/162072

They all have responses from employees like @TP-Link @Riley_S @Kevin_Z @David-TP stating that you can turn off the DHCP server in AP mode or that the request has been raised to the developers to allow disabling the DHCP in router mode. But this particular feature has been discussed here in the forums for what looks like at least 3 years and it's still not implemented. By and large people are generally wanting to disable the DHCP server in router mode because the provided DHCP server is woefully inadequate (such as not bundling local domain DNS).

The only reason I looked at the TP-Link products was because I upgrade my home internet to 2 Gbps connection and wanted a mesh wifi with 2.5 Gbps ethernet LAN/WAN. But in terms of the actual firmware and management capabilities, I really miss my Google Nest Wifi. The advanced features like grouping devices to set weekend/weekday schedules for my kids wasn't paywalled behind a subscription like they are on the Deco (really, a subscription to have weekend vs weekday schedules?!), it has a speed test function (which is available only for some Deco models), and the LAN-side DHCP+DNS just worked. TP-Link is supposed to be a networking company, and I bought a model marketed as Pro, but it's seriously one of the most limited home wifi solutions I've every dealt with (in terms of contemporary features), reaching way back to the old Linksys WRT days.