Kind of sad how ad-hoc mode was such a a failure. I always imagined how cool it would be to have a huge number of devices all connected to the internet through each other but it was hard enough to just get two devices talking.
It’s important to note that the WiFi ad-hoc standard is not a mesh network standard, and was never intended to be one. It is just a simplified standard for an Access Point with an easier to implement feature set.
Ad-hoc mode, also called WiFi Direct, gets used in other services. It is used in AirDrop and Android equivalents.
Hotspot mode destroyed the use of connecting to internet. It is easier for devices to connect to hotspot than setup ad-hoc connection. My impression is that there is assumption that WiFi Direct isn’t routed.
