As you mentioned, we currently do not support—or have plans to support—SOCKS in the GL.iNet UI.
You are free to install third-party packages such as redsocks or shadowsocks to add this functionality.
If these packages are not available in the repository for certain device models, please provide the specific model and firmware version. We can ask our development team to check whether they can be compiled and added to repository.
For now, a safer choice would be the MT3000 or MT6000, as they run OpenWrt 24, which may offer better compatibility and a smoother experience with these packages.