Why take that chance, for some slightly cheaper routers?
I have respect for human creativity, and the limits of public servants. Its not easy to keep constant vigilance against all possible backdoors. Easier to restrict core infra devices from openly hostile areas.
Why take the chance that the food you buy from the grocer may be contaminated? I have respect for human creativity, and the limits of farmers. It's not easy to keep constant vigilance against all sources of contamination. Easier to restrict food to only what you produce yourself.
Glibness aside, there's clearly a continuum to the concept of 'we live in a society', and to how far the monkey brain's tribe extends. But the argument against routers is clearly arising from a biased set of priors, whether fairly or unfairly.
For America, yes. For China, no.
> but any involvement from the CCP in any form in any company is Not Good ?
For America, yes. For China, no.
This isn't a case where the "principled high road" has any practical meaning. This is a "You want your side to win but you want their side to lose? You're a hypocrite!" situation.