I gather that as we might eventually have…
- ATH9k: low range/performance, no firmware for WiFi, but proprietary for BT
- RS9116: low range/performance, proprietary firmware, but on-chip
- upcoming: decent performance, proprietary firmware on M.2 card
Which makes the the advantage “better performance / more modern standards”, but still lacks a free firmware. Do you see any chance that a concerted effort can free up one of those things?
On a related note: On the Debian mailing list, they are currently discussing the problem of their default images not having the firmware needed to install net-installer images on WiFi-only laptops. I suggested a fundraiser to (eventually) have less of these problems, but there seems to be little enthusiasm towards freeing firmware 