I'm on the other side of the like-Netgear stuff. My last one (R6300) never worked quite right from day one. I agree with the topology model of dedicated backhaul bandwidth. I'm waiting for the AmpliFi HD to be released. And yes I know AmpliFi doesn't dedicate a radio for that.
Yeah, I stayed away from the Netgear 6XXX routers...mostly because of what I read. Reviews here and elsewhere weren't encouraging.