I believe this is the premise behind EFF's open router project. Provide a higher quality base router distribution that can be used by anyone, including SoC and router manufacturers.
Every SoC has a different kernel, heavily patched, with drivers specific to the SoC. The SoC vendor has an army of paid programmers developing this software for every SoC they make.
These Soc vendors have to start working on a new kernel long before the chip is released, as they need working software by the time the chip goes to market (to offer the router makers). Broadcom's business depends on this. They will not simply hope some loose-knit group of volunteers will timely produce software which will help them sell their new chips.
And it's not realistic for the open router project to do this much work. It would require cooperation from the SoC vendors, providing free and early access to their kernel driver source and complete documentation for their chips. I don't see this happening.
At best the open router project could release software for hardware which is already a year or two old.
Sorry to be such a pessimist, but the incentives to make this work are just not there for the businesses involved.
