Yes. Please. Do it. These are terrible.
I’ve extracted their firmwares before. Not only is the software many years behind, but it contains changes to important, security relevant parts of the system like sshd that can’t possibly be good for security.
And yet TP Link is consistently a very well rated brand both for software and for hardware. I’m currently looking for a WiFi 6e/7 router and most sources agree they’re the best. Both Amazon reviews and trusted sources like rtings say this.
Basically I hear your point but the US does need to have a good reason to ban these because otherwise they seem to just be taking away good hardware from people