I guess people just started to realise that mini x86s exist too

People always knew x86s existed. I think the main culprit is the price gap between them and Pis is decreasing. Pis used to be around $35, which has skyrocketed to 3-5x MSRP, plus they were unavailable for a long time. Now the Pi’s performance to price ratio isn’t justifiable to most, so people pay a little more for the x86 but get so much more capability.

It’s just hardware. Almost any device can act as your router if you put the proper OS and/or software on it.

If you don’t use a VPN on the router, you won’t need it.

But what if you decide to set one up so you can VPN in while on the road? Personally, I’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it…as well as “buy once, cry once” rather than need to upgrade down the line.

Something to keep in mind:

Avoid using mirrored consolidated lists, if possible; it deprives the original list maintainer of visits (meaning they may be less inclined to keep it up to date!) https://firebog.net/

Basically the maintained ones from: https://firebog.net/

Netgate / pfSense acts in bad faith / WIPO decides in favour of OPNsense: https://opnsense.org/opnsense-com/