That's not correct. I haven't quite got all the way through the article, but yeah - not correct. It has wifi that you use to manage it, but it also has an ethernet port that you can use. I have it as one of 3 internet devices at my home in rural Arkansas. I would turn off the wifi entirely, if they allowed me, for less interference.
The cable is kind of a bummer, but at least it's super high quality. I wasn't too happy about having to use a giant step bit to drill holes, as I wasn't about to cut the ethernet jack off the end of it when I ran the cable in the attic.
That's how the first version router was (the one I have). The new 2nd gen router has WiFi (ac), but Ethernet is not built in. You have to buy an extra dongle that costs $20 and goes inline to the dish.
The new router does have a bypass mode, so you can get around using it at all (though it still needs to be plugged in as it's the PoE source through the proprietary cable). The reset method is a bit weird, since it doesn't seem there's a button. I think you have to plug and unplug it three times within a certain time period.
I had no idea they launched a v2. I wonder why they would regress so much. The obvious answer is cost... but they have to know how much people want good internet service in remote areas, right? I'll pay for it and I know I'm not the only one.
Standard PoE+ is 30w, and even the newest PoH maxes out at 90w. The new hardware draws more than that, so Starlink made up their own PoEish standard with proprietary cable/connectors. The $20 dongle is probably a custom PoE adapter. The good thing about this setup is you only need a single cable run up to your roof.
Adding an RJ45 jack directly to dishy might actually complicate the construction. For one thing, it's a weatherproofing issue. But now you have two ethernet ports and need a switch, which needs software management. It's not just a few pennies on the BOM.
My understanding for the newer routers is there is now only the single port. The router itself doesn't appear to be weatherproof'ed in any way, and already needs to be installed indoors, so I think it'd just be the cost of the RJ45 jack (and whatever internal differences for the router).
It just...seems like it cannot be much of a cost savings.
Surely whatever SoC they're using already has the capability, so yeah, it's probably a few $ at most. I bet they figured they'd save money because of people's shitty wifi setups in their gargantuan exurban homes.
We're talking about a typical 1 Gbps (non-PoE) LAN port on the router, so you could plug in another computer hardwired (or a switch).
The jack is pennies, and the rest of the chips to support the extra Ethernet interface are still readily available. Version 1 of the router had a LAN port (labeled AUX).
Woof.