The ruling regarding U-NII certification one year earlier required the vendor to secure the devices from unauthorized modification. And, in their applications, vendors must clearly describe their security and authentication mechanisms, and firmware installation governance.
Most likely, Buffalo has not applied for certifications since March 31, 2015 for their 802.11a devices, since they mention loading anyone else's build of DD-WRT voids the warranty.
But let us conduct a thought experiment. Suppose a vendor has applied. Suppose they stated clearly that their firmware they supply is a vendor-controlled build of DD-WRT, that firmware upgrades require customer authentication with physical access, and that they use TLS encryption to transfer firmware builds to the customer, with SHA256 hash signatures. Let us further state that they *permit* the authorized customer to load their own firmware, but that this voids their warranty.
The 2014 ruling specifies that only authorized firmware, as defined by the vendor, should be able to be installed. (A third-party DD-WRT load would violate that requirement.)
I guess that the FCC would deny the certification of this type of product today.
For the 5Ghz band, new products must have a way to authenticate firmwares to be installed, and the vendor's firmware installation procedures must authenticate the firmware before installing. But I also guess that the firmware could be a vendor build of DD-WRT, such as Buffalo uses.
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