Buying hardware is an investment (& not something everyone can do) but I've really never understood the point of the control server from the perspective of an open-source self-hoster (for a business like Tailscale it makes sense as it introduces an element of control, user dependency & likely analytics of some value).

There's still a lot that can be done to improve Wireguard's UX but I think the Asus example proves it can be done well. Headscale seems to be doing the worst of both worlds (promoting an architecture & user-flow of a proprietary closed-source competitor, while still requiring CLI setup & instance maintenance). For example, it seems to me like it would be better for them to wrap Wireguard directly & integrate with the actual Wireguard mobile app instead of having people install proprietary Tailscale app on their phones to use your own open-source self-hosted control server.