>Wi-Fi which is a lot higher quality than a consumer router

I am not really sure about it. My ISP provided AP can do a gigabit over wifi.

I need to change it because the ISP hardcodes the dns for spying reasons.

But sadly to match that performance I need to spend like $180 to get an AP with that performance

My APs are “only” 802.11ac, but on the other hand they were only $8/ea. And all of the speed critical devices on my network are wired anyway. It’s good enough to stream 1080p/120hz from my gaming rig to my iPad with imperceptible jitter and sub 10ms latency so I’m happy. If they ever get flaky down the road I’ll just upgrade to the “latest” 10 year old sub $20 used enterprise gear I can get my hands on. And that’s not the oldest part of my setup, the router itself was made circa 2013 and my managed gigabit PoE switch is of indeterminate age but probably at least 20 years old if I had to guess. Networking tech changes a lot more slowly than some other areas.