[BPI-R3] What image to choose?

Who said that the onboard wifi can’t do both?

The following describes how to do both on a single interface. It isn’t easy, but should be possible on R3, although I haven’t tried this myself on R3.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Software_access_point#Wireless_client_and_software_AP_with_a_single_Wi-Fi_device

Although this is on the archlinux wiki, it should be the same on Debian/Ubuntu.