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Not always the case. Generating traffic can be more computationally intense than routing the traffic. I've done speed tests on a few routers local to it and the results have been less than stellar compared to getting expected results with it just routing traffic (consumer routers). Granted these tests were a few years ago and things have progressed, but how often are people upgrading their routers?

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Correct.

Also, most 1Gbit/s and faster routers have hardware-accelerated packet forwarding, aka "flow offloading", aka "hardware NAT", where forwarded packets mostly don't touch software at all.

Some routers even have internal "CPU" port of packet core with significantly slower line rate than that of external ports'. So traffic that terminates/originates at the router is necessarily quite a bit slower, regardless of possibly extra-beefy processor, and efficient software. Not really a problem since that traffic would normally be limited to UI, software updates, ARP/NDP/DHCP, and occasional first packet of a forwarded network connection.

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