edit: Okay I thought it did but apparently my router doesn't assign publically routable IPv6 addresses by default. I found a setting that would enable this though. Gonna leave it off for security reasons, but it's just a toggle, so still seems pretty easy. Also my local interface apparently has an (unrouted) ip in the same subnet as my router's public address, and I'm not sure how it got it.

Every device on my LAN that responds to Bonjour on `.local` uses link-local IPv6 without me having had to do any configuration or put any thought into it whatsoever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

EDIT - Oh, you’re talking about public IPv6… similarly, my router (a TP-Link Archer 1200) gets assigned a prefix by my ISP, which it then auto-assigns inside devices IPs from, again without any explicit configuration or intervention on my part. Super easy.

Do not "ssh/other forms of remote" using ip addresses. Use domain names or local domain. It is easier to remember, is more secure (if configured in DNS), and less prone to errors.

> Can you redirect ports to specific local machines using only ipv6 (that implies they keep constant addresses)?

Yes. Use domain names in configuration files. It more robust, easier to read, and is better protected against network changes on the local network.

I have been part of multiple ISP changes and searching through configuration files for ISP specific IP address ranges is never fun. It wastes time and is prone to errors. In enterprise settings domain names rarely changes and even when they do, the old primary name are usually retained for backward compatibility. An ISP can get replaced fairly quickly if an alternative is cheaper or provide a better service.

> Can you easily switch between two internet connections going through different routers that are plugged into the same switch for any machine on your local network using only ipv6?

Are you talking about BGP? BGP is a fairly complex protocol and uses some archaic configuration syntax, but even so there are generally no differences between ipv4 and ipv6. It is the same pain making sure both ipv4 and ipv6 switch between the two routes correctly.

> Do you know enough to assign addresses in a way that you, not your router, wants?

If I want to manually assign addresses it's still pretty simple, but in the end I normally just don't care. I don't want to know what IP my printer is, I just want to reach it. Which isn't a challenge at all. Even for things at my home that are IPv4 only they're practically all DHCP. Because there's little reason to ever really care about something's address.

> Can you ssh/other forms of remote into any machine that accepts ssh on your local network using only ipv6?

I have no problems reaching any host on any of my networks even if they're running only IPv6. It's nice too because I can trivially reach any port I want globally as well with a basic firewall change. Even better I can have one host have many IP addresses with different services bound to each address if I want.

> Can you redirect ports to specific local machines using only ipv6 (that implies they keep constant addresses)?

Why do any port redirection at all? Just set the firewall rule and things can hit it. And yeah, they can keep constant addresses. They can have dozens, hundreds of static host addresses if I want.

> Can you easily switch between two internet connections going through different routers that are plugged into the same switch for any machine on your local network using only ipv6?

If that's something you're really wanting, Network Prefix Translation can be done pretty easily. But the vast majority of home users aren't using dual WAN anyways.

> This is all easily doable with ipv4 in like two afternoons

Sounds like your setup with IPv4 took more work than mine with IPv6, as mine only took me an hour or so while yours took multiple days.

Do you do all this stuff with IPv4? No... especially not at home.