> I don’t see enough value in the added complexity and the increasingly complicated API surface.

This very much. For my own work and personal projects, the pages router has been more than enough.

In terms of the complicated API surface and the difficulty to grasp newer concepts introduced with the app router, it continuously reminds me a couple lines of the Zen of Python[0]:

  > If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
  > If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.

[0] https://peps.python.org/pep-0020/

lovely to see TanStack pick up steam and i think its a really tricky line to toe to mention dissatisfaction with nextjs without incurring very reasonable "skill issue bro" reactions from that side