Hi,
Well, what a router can truly accomplish is always a combination of its hardware capabilities and software features. If you want a plain router, you can either go for SOHO products that do not even aspire for any advanced features (so even if you decided later that you need some, you would be out of luck), or you can go for a router that has the ability to be flexible but you do not necessarily enable the feature sets providing you with the functions you do not want to use.
Granted, Cisco routers are expensive, and if you just want a plain router, the price/performance ratio can be rather bad - not because Cisco routers are not good but because you will not be using the advanced features that come along in the price, therereby diminishing the return value of your investment. In such a situation, you probably would be better off with other vendors and simpler routers. Cisco routers can always be dumbed down by running just the basic IOS feature set but the power still lies there, it is just a matter of unlocking it (using paid licenses, obviously), but if you never intend to tap into that power, it perhaps makes sense to look for other vendors. This is the necessary consequence of having unified operating system across all product lines - both an advantage and a disadvantage. In my personal opinion, Cisco never focused on market segments with rather simple requirements.
This is how I would personally put it.
Best regards,
Peter
