But LEDE/OpenWRT rely on the firmware loading API more than ever and 
currently there is not a replacement for it.

....

I looked into 10-ath9k-eeprom [0] of LEDE's AR71XX target and I noticed
that quite a few devices patch the MACs of the wifi.
If you look at the code for the Airtight C-55 and C-60, Meraki MR18,
Meraki Z1, you'll notice that each one has to add a fixed value (+1,
+2, ...) to the extraced MAC-Address. So how would you replicate this,
with "nvmem-cell-names = address" without some sort of 
nvmem-provider-processor?

...
 

https://github.com/lede-project/source/blob/master/target/linux/ar71xx/files/arch/mips/ath79/dev-eth.c#L1204

and grep lists the following devices:
mach-dgl-5500-a1.c, mach-dhp-1565-a1.c, mach-dir-505-a1.c, mach-dir-615-c1.c
mach-dir-615-i1.c, mach-dir-825-b1.c, mach-dir-825-c1.c, mach-tew-673gru.c
mach-tew-712br.c, mach-tew-732br.c, mach-tew-823dru.c

I would say a big part of the problem is that all of these use cases
are outside of mainline. Why should mainline support something which
is not actually used in mainline.

So i would suggest your first step is to bring some of these devices
into mainline. Once in mainline, it becomes a mainline issue, and
people will help get it solved.

       Andrew
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