openWRT does not enable wifi by default. This is correct decision. GL does do this. It can be dangerous because MAC/SSID will leak. Even simple fact that wifi signal exist can be dangerous in some situations, create interference etc.
Is better maybe to have button be on/off for wifi by default? Or only require user to click “On” in software. Because really what is the benefit to on as default? To plug and use? But then you are using with default password and you advertise that this is GL so password is known. This is also security risk. Some people will not think but when they go click “On” and see place to enter password for wifi, this is good.
Now a lot of people need to configure the router via wifi on their phone. With wifi turned off this could be difficult. In openwrt vanilla firmware you even do not have Luci installed. So only way is to configure via ssh.
But we are aware the issue.
In some new models, e.g. B2200 wifi is not on. You need to configure it using smartphone or pc.
On MT1300 we have BLE as well. But not yet to turn wifi off by default. We may do this later.
For even newer models, we may consider to have unique wifi password for each router. At least we will force the user to change wifi password for first time setup
