I'm as particular as I need to be with my NIC choices. Mostly it was Intel, especially in firewalls.

But Intel I225 (2.5GbE) chipsets were causing a lot of grief, 2022-2024. Realtek was same as ever and that made them a potentially better choice.

I think the 225/226 are better now. I have a 4 port arriving today and we'll see.