I have three routers and they are all Bosch, two are 1617, and one is the Colt. I have had other brands in my years, craftsman used to make good ones for general purposes, and Porter -Cable and Dewalt were/are good brands, depending on who you talk to, however I have built my router system around Bosch and have no regrets. I have the Bosch lift on my Bosch router table, and two standard router bases, and one plunge base, with the Colt having both bases. I work almost exclusively with local hardwoods, oak, maple, hickory, popular, walnut, cherry. and ash and have never had any problems doing what I wanted to to with my Bosch routers. I use almost all 1/2" shaft router bits, with the majority of them being Whiteside with the 1617s, and 1/4" shaft router bits with the Colt for finer work. .
I have often seen others try to rush their work on a router, that isn't a good idea for obvious and not so obvious of reasons. It takes patience and practice to use a router well, with emphasis on the patience. Trying to take too big of a bite, or feeding to fast, will not speed up the process, and may very well cause damage. Using the correct speed is also very important, the harder the wood, and the deeper the cut, the slower the speed should be, and let the router bit do its work, again don't rush it. While larger motors over 2.25 hp may get some jobs done faster, most jobs can be completed just as well with a 2.25 hp router if the above limitations are observed, time, speed of the router and patience, and always a good sharp quality router bit.