Not so long ago I got acquainted with Mikrotik products and in general I am delighted with its capabilities. But I don’t understand why IoT support was included in the routerboard if no device can be connected? The bulk of IoT devices are connected either via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. But miniPci-e slots on routerboards are not compatible with wifi modules from other manufacturers, and modules from Mikrotik do not support additional bluetooth in the wifi module. And you can't plug bluetooth into the usb port. He won't work there. How then to connect BLE, LoRa? I'm not talking about a specialized KNOT line. Any other routerboard, for example, RBM33G. Somewhat old, but works fine with modems from other manufacturers, but does not work with usb and wifi modules, although the specification says that it supports working with them and there are additional packages for working with IoT in the firmware. Why then make firmware with IoT support if it cannot do this in hardware? Or is there still a way to connect modules that work with wifi and bluetooth at the same time or via usb?

Why then make firmware with IoT support if it cannot do this in hardware?

Why make firmware for wifi support, if some routers cannot do this in hardware?
IOT is an option, and additional package, that is usefull if the proper hardware is choosen.

I don't have any of these: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/UM/IoT+products

But still can connect the MT router ROS 7 with IOT optional software, to a MQTT broker (like Mosquitto) , that runs in a Docker container,
independent container or part of Home Assistant, (which in my case is wifi based) and runs on ...
Raspberry Pi, Odroid N2+, Synology NAS, hAP ac3 , laptop, and a selected set of ESP32 and ESP8266 based devices and boards
For other protocols and conversions I will need other hardware ...

Why then make firmware with IoT support if it cannot do this in hardware?

Why make firmware for wifi support, if some routers cannot do this in hardware?
IOT is an option, and additional package, that is usefull if the proper hardware is choosen.

I do not understand why even make additional packages for some Mikrotik devices if they do not support it at the hardware level. Or they support, but there is no information in the public domain on how to set it up.

Why then make firmware with IoT support if it cannot do this in hardware?

I don't have any of these: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/UM/IoT+products

I'm not talking about these few devices. Everything is clear with them. They support such technologies in hardware.

Why then make firmware with IoT support if it cannot do this in hardware?

But still can connect the MT router ROS 7 with IOT optional software, to a MQTT broker (like Mosquitto) , that runs in a Docker container,
independent container or part of Home Assistant, (which in my case is wifi based) and runs on ...
Raspberry Pi, Odroid N2+, Synology NAS, hAP ac3 , laptop, and a selected set of ESP32 and ESP8266 based devices and boards
For other protocols and conversions I will need other hardware ...

What role does Mikrotik play in this scheme? Does it handle scripts? What does it do if your MQTT broker is running on another device? And you write that you work through wi-fi. Have you configured ESP-now? Or do you work on a regular Wi-Fi network? If in the usual, then these are large losses in electricity. BLE, LoRa and ESP-Now can cut power costs, but how to set it up on Mikrotik?
What MT do you use? I have RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN, RBM33G, RBM11G. They have support for IoT at the software level, but not at the hardware level. And I don't understand how they can help in setting up IoT, if one of the main requirements for IoT is low power consumption, i.e. BLE, LoRa, ESP-Now.

I do not understand why even make additional packages for some Mikrotik devices if they do not support it at the hardware level.

additional packages .... are just compiled for all devices AFAIK. There is seldom something that is not in all ROS images, unless it is CPU platform specific (like Zerotier for ARM only)
The firmware images are not MT device specific but are built per CPU platform.
Not all additional packages fit in the flash or memory of all MT devices. (eg wifiwave2)

additional packages .... are just compiled for all devices AFAIK. There is seldom something that is not in all ROS images, unless it is CPU platform specific (like Zerotier for ARM only)
The firmware images are not MT device specific but are built per CPU platform.

Maybe I'm not even expressing myself correctly. Mikrotik can support these technologies in hardware. But there are no drivers. Without writing drivers and having them in the firmware, the presence of a hardware capability becomes useless.

What role does Mikrotik play in this scheme? Does it handle scripts? What does it do if your MQTT broker is running on another device? And you write that you work through wi-fi. Have you configured ESP-now? Or do you work on a regular Wi-Fi network? If in the usual, then these are large losses in electricity. BLE, LoRa and ESP-Now can cut power costs, but how to set it up on Mikrotik?

MT router is not the central server for IOT. MQTT broker on another device? Quite common setup, no? Some even use a MQTT broker in the cloud.
Playing with Tasmota as open source cloud-free IoT environment, and with Home Assistant for integration.
Sometimes the original cloud based firmware is still used, as re-flashing with Tasmota is not always easy, and HA integrates with these cloud services.
Power switches, blinds, stores, power outlets , all get powered by mains.
For me MT devices just integrade with MQTT today, and do carry the wifi backbone for the devices. (In wifi there is no relay function in the IoT nodes as with Z-wave or Zigbee)

And yes, documentation by Mikrotik is lagging, limited, and sometimes very cryptic.

MT router is not the central server for IOT. MQTT broker on another device? Quite common setup, no? Some even use a MQTT broker in the cloud.

It's not even about where the MQTT broker is.

For me MT devices just integrade with MQTT today, and do carry the wifi backbone for the devices. (In wifi there is no relay function in the IoT nodes as with Z-wave or Zigbee)

That is, as I expected, you have a regular Wi-Fi network. You have not set up a point-to-point connection as you did for ESP-Now. Thus, you have a very high consumption of electricians. For IoT, this is not a good practice.

For me MT devices just integrade with MQTT today, and do carry the wifi backbone for the devices. (In wifi there is no relay function in the IoT nodes as with Z-wave or Zigbee)

For example, let's say we use two esp-now devices. Relatively speaking, let the radius of action of the esp-now device be 20m. These devices are located at a distance of 100m from each other. And we have some kind of MT with a range of 150m. How to use it to transfer information to the server? If we had more devices with esp-now, then several scenarios could be used: “master” sending data to multiple “slaves”, “slave” receiving data from multiple “masters”, two-way communication between boards.
How to solve this problem with Mikrotik?

ESP-now is not compatible with OSI layered wifi. It is designed to avoid the use a regular wifi AP or router.
There is also an ESP-NOW HUB, which connects ESP-now to wifi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd3YB8cI5dA

MT router is not using ESP-now but regular wifi.
I'm not using ESP-now either. ESP-now has it's own benefits and use cases. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmvMtgNs9r8)