I miss the times when we flash xiaomi.eu to our phones and everything went ok... :(
Redmi Note3 mtk does not even open Play Store... last working version is 7.10.26, everyone else is some how bugy.
I agree with you. There is a RN3 MTK here too and is not that old to stay stucked in 5.0.2.
But what gives xiaomi money are new phones, not supporting old ones.
When I bought the phone, asked for the unlocking premissions, but the official process to unlock never worked, so I've used an alternative way used to unbrick a bricked phone.
With Nougat I guess that is not possible.
I'm currently using AICP, based on LineageOS, I would like to give a try to the new MIUI based on Android 7, but for what i've notice, its better to stay like that.
;)