rugk:

I tried to use opkg with this script "opkg extras" for upgrading:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/generic.sysupgrade#savingrestoring_user-installed_packages

IMHO such a script is really basic functionality and I should not have to execute such a script just to keep the installed packages on upgrade.
IMHO this would make upgrading OpenWRT a lot easier and I would also do it a lot more frequent (potentially fixing security issues faster).

As I talked about [[https://forum.openwrt.org/t/opkg-hotplug-extras-to-keep-installed-packages-on-upgrade-are-itself-not-kept-on-upgrades/99578/2?u=rugk|this in the forum]], too, the author said:

In addition, as the author of those pages, I'd like to point out that the method for tracking installed and removed packages can be greatly simplified if someone decides to integrate that functionality into Opkg.

So more systematic:

=====Problem=====

I may fear to upgrade my OpenWRT router due to the loss of installed packages.
The existing alternatives are not sufficient and hard to use, especially for an average user. E.g. you need to use SSH/the CLI.
The existing alternative did not 100%ly work in my case. It e.g. also installed all dependencies as manually installed packages as far as I see.
Code-wise/Technically the author said the current way is much more complicated than what could be done if that were integrated into opkg.

=====Suggestion=====

It would be nice if these OPGK extras and hotplug extras were an opkg package itself. This would also solve the reinstallation issue, because by definition, they would reinstall “themselves”.