Telus Wi-Fi Hub: is my experience typical?

Hello, I recently had a Telus Wi-Fi Hub installed in my wood frame, 1100 sq ft (31 cubic meters) apartment style condo and an wondering if others have had a similar experience. Thank you for any feedback as not sure what to expect.

For a hard-wired connection or if I'm within 3m of the Telus Wi-Fi Hub, I'm receiving the advertised speed of my Telus internet plan.

However, if I move to about 5m (in the line of sight of the Wi-Fi Hub) or on the other side of a wall, the download speed drops to about 30% of my internet plan. The interesting part is that the upload speed is not impacted to the same degree (e.g., only 50% degradation). Is the transmitter in the Wi-Fi Hub weaker than the transmitter in my smartphone or laptop? If I run a Wi-Fi scanner, at about 5m, I'm seeing 5 other access points with a signal quality above that of my Telus Wi-fi Hub. If I go to the far end of my condo, I get speeds in the kbps range or connection drops.

When debugging Telus, there solution was to buy a number of Wi-Fi Boosters. I'm hesitant to spend more for three reasons, my previous Wi-Fi router didn't have this problem (signal coverage complete and without speed drops), the technician said I wouldn't have to worry about signal coverage in a 1100 sq. ft area, and based on what the technician said, I'm not sure how confident I should be that the Wi-Fi Boosters will help.

Cheers!