Indeed, and the various different variants of 802.11N doesn't help matters at all.

After all depending on the Number of Streams a device supports dictates it's maximum speed. Also it doesn't help when router manufactures quote 300Mbit/s.etc

I remember 512KBps cable being considered fast (Then they bumped it upto 600Kbps just to get one over on BT) these days I'd probably find such a connection painful to use.