If you want Intel inside, you also get Intel ME, the opposite of RYF. I hope you have all heard about this recently discovered bug in ME: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/01/intel_amt_me_vulnerability/
The AL-514 is an ARM device, not Intel, so it shouldn't have that problem. However, it is competitive with some of the Intel devices when it comes to features like 10GbE.
While I appreciate the efforts of the creators of this project, MediaTek is very (un)popular for poor kernel updates. Any info on how to deal with this or am I wrong? KD