Briding is the best idea so you are thinking the right way. By far the easiest to use mesh system is googles but it does not have the performance of some of the others like the Velop or the Orbi. I still think its one of the best for ease of use. I use the Velop because its a performance beast but I would not suggest this in this instance because it is not a set it and forget it and requires some initial setup and is more for power users. Think of it as a mildly less complicated unifi setup.
If money is no object i say eero pro as i set that up and the sister in laws acreage and it works amazingly well (but super expensive). My suggestions for set it in forget it in order:
Eero Pro (always connected to eero servers) $$$$
Google Mesh (always connected to google servers) $$$
Netgear Orbi (2019 version not the older ones with shit firmware) $$$$
TP Link Deco (a 6 year old could set this up and maintain it) $
Amplify HD Main nodes x 2 with 2 extenders (you a baller? this ones baller) $$$$$
OR.......
The nighthawk is one of the better extenders and should work with "most" routers out there. Ai Mesh is decent (especially when running two ac86u's) as long as you disable airtime fairness as that hates smart home devices/features and extenders. Maybe your first thought of 2-3 AC86u's and the nighthawk extender would get them what they wanted with only a 1 time setup.
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