Band steering silently breaks IoT device setup flows

Modern routers use 'band steering' to automatically move devices between 2.4GHz and 5GHz under a single SSID. But many IoT devices (smart plugs, cameras, thermostats) require 2.4GHz during initial setup and use Bluetooth or a temporary AP to discover the network. Band steering causes the phone running the setup app to jump to 5GHz mid-setup, breaking the provisioning handshake. So what? The IoT device fails to connect, showing a vague 'connection failed' error. So what? Users retry 5-10 times, then Google the problem and find forum posts saying 'disable band steering' or 'create a separate 2.4GHz SSID.' So what? Disabling band steering degrades the experience for all other devices (laptops, phones, tablets) that benefit from automatic band selection. Creating a separate SSID means managing two networks and remembering which devices are on which. So what? A 15-minute smart plug setup becomes a 2-hour networking project that requires knowledge most consumers don't have. This persists because router manufacturers and IoT manufacturers don't coordinate — routers optimize for seamless multi-band, while IoT devices assume a single-band network. Neither side considers the other's behavior during the critical setup flow.