content: From OP's source   This isn’t malice on behalf of the FCC or TP-Link; this is the product of doing what is required with the least amount of effort. TP-Link must limit transmit power on the 5GHz band, and locked firmware is the simplest way to do that.   Title could have been better but they do mention that the situation is more complicated than 'FCC hates 3rd party firmware'.