Protectli develops and supports the coreboot BIOS on all current devices. We can expect that they are purchasing larger quantities and therefore have larger margins on most systems. Their prices range from $50 - $200 over AliExpress. Protectli is one of the easier VARs to determine the added cost since much of their hardware is manufactured by Yanling and sold on AliExpress. The item description and value is usually fabricated or under declared to slip by customs fees. I suspect that the sellers have multiple stores so that a problem with one account will not affect listings on other stores. Others have been able to find updated BIOS for some boards.

Multiple hardware revisions exist for the 'same' hardware so care has to be taken to compare the pictures with what others have had success with. There is limited support from the vendor and they are not often willing to exchange or return faulty hardware. Purchases from AliExpress are a gamble at best.

Which leads me to my main topic: What are the benefits of going through a VAR such as Protectli, Netgate, or OPNsense/Deciso instead of AliExpress.

While troubleshooting can be a fun challenge, trying to debug bad hardware is not. The i5-1135G7 system I ordered was problematic to get set up and died within a few days. The overwhelming theme that I've taken from the threads is that the AliExpress hardware isn't always what you expect and that the quality can be hit or miss. Review of the J4125 and N5095/N5105/N6005 hardware from AliExpress seems to have raised the profile of these little boxes, or at least created some interesting threads in the forums.