I personally use the multiple AP setup myself. No downtime with handoffs on any of my devices, and I most certainly do not have any sort of “mesh” system. If you can provide some references to back up your claim, I’d love to be educated further. Otherwise my personal experience suggests you are mistaken.

I want wired mesh but never want wireless mesh to avoid inconsistent performance. Sadly there's very few wired mesh APs meanwhile many expensive wireless mesh APs available.