Soooo… going back to what I think the original topic was… are AirPorts still relevant/productive as a means of extending wifi or as a “mesh?” I am using an extreme and on express to extend my wifi to my current workstation (as the missus is working from home) and was thinking about buying a couple more on eBay or somewhere to extend throughout the house…
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In my opinion, no. Airports have never been capable of forming a WiFi mesh network. Given that mesh technology is now well implemented in consumer grade products, if one access point won’t do and you have the option, go with mesh.
And is probably both less expensive and faster overall than accumulating a bunch of old Apple routers.
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I’m happy with out Airports (3 Extremes, connected via Powerline). Without Powerline, however, I think I’d switch to a mesh setup.
I had an 802.11ac AirPort Extreme and used the 802.11n one it replaced as an extender. These were bettered in range and reliability by simply plugging in my Orbi plus one satellite in identical locations.
Unfortunately, his place is about a five minute drive away from fiber optic internet, so the costs would be way too high for that.
Coincidentally, he plans on getting Starlink for much faster internet access.
Make that four! 
I used to own an AirPort Extreme, but it didn’t work well with Windows computers. That part really bugged me. As a result, I ditched my AirPort Extreme just a few years after I had purchased it.
Just a quick PSA: When recommending Eero routers, consider these are only available in a handful of countries.
When I was in the market for a system not that long ago it was only US and Canada. Now they’ve done an Apple-style “expansion” (News+, iTunes TV shows, HomePods, etc.) which continues to exclude a heck of a lot of countries.
You might want to see if you can update it. The AE had vulnerabilities that were patched in the last few years.