@Sunshine 

 

Thank you for your quick response!

 

Please tell me, why then there is a page for it in its manual for that very device?

https://www.manua.ls/tp-link/archer-vr400/manual?p=32

I have the very same manual in paper that came with the box.

 

I have not even once came by a mention of that USB port having limited capabilities, and it even powers up the hard drive just fine. One would think that if the cheapo no-name modem from my ISP I'm trying to replace has that feature, surely an after-market premium device would have it also. Should I return it? Is it possible to enable it through a software update in the future?

  @Sunshine 

 

It appears that indeed, I might've seen the manual of the wrong version of the same modem and due to everything else being exactly the same misinterpreted things. I appologise for making my inattentiveness your problem.

Still, I'm not sure what to do. If previous versions of the VR 400 model had USB storage support and it was cut in V3, that's very unfortuante. Is there no way to re-enable it? Should I just return it and get a modem that has it?

I got fooled by the same with Vr400 usb port. I wanted router with usb and onemesh which is newer Vr400 but no usb support. My current vr2100v seems to be having problems with not connecting to some wireless devices, I found they changed versions like popping mushrooms and lack of consistency across. Might be time for me to explore other brand I suppose, as support seems telling things you know already.