Appreciate your overall impressions…I run both as well along with many others. For me the LPS8 was quicker/easier to set up and deploy than the LR8 but then I don’t use either specifically for node development…lots of others to chose from. If I was to give one to a user to fire and forget it would be the LPS8 as less risk of bricking it though as you say RouterOS and the LR8 have more features for a pro networking person to configure and play with, and I like the Mikrotiks power options…the LPS8 came with its own external PSU so no real issue with fact it’s external…helps placement flexibility.
The only factual thing I would challenge is that Semtech have evolved the concentrator baseband and RF front end offerings such that there are now 4 conc chips… the original SX1301, then reduced temp range, slightly reduced spec SX1308, the newer architecture but essentially same spec SX1302, offering lower power and most recently the SX1303 with some enhanced features and lower power… in most real world deployments the actual core 8 channel TTN related performance as RF system is broadly the same… minor implementation changes by different manufactures can negate small device improvements. Note I haven’t tested all chip variants myself yet as still awaiting some gw/con card manufacturers to ship me final units for eval.