@elliott1953 As a veteran of 5 hip replacement surgeries between 2007 and 2012 , and ACL/MCL surgery before that, I feel like you are getting good advice from our cohorts here.
For years I have thought that if I had a dollar for every time someone I knew with a joint replacement or other orthopedic surgery believed what the surgeon said, "Recovery takes 4-6weeks (or 6-12, or 8-12 weeks, or even 3-4 months) I could cruise around the world. There ought to be a full disclosure law!
What the surgeon means is "Your incision will be healed, the implants will be well-fixed to the bones, and risk of infection decreases."
What you here is "I'll be the good, new me in 6 weeks or 3 months."

Every patient comes to surgery with their own unique body, other ailments, healing patterns and pain perception and pain tolerance. Some bleed a lot, or form scar tissue more than others. So the surgical
experience itself is different.

Doctors do not have x-ray vision, and even with imaging cannot always tell where there are nerves in strange places, microtears in muscle or ligaments, and slightly misaligned joints. So what they find in the OR may not be what they anticipated.

Nerves are notoriously slow to heal when irritated or cut - about 1mm per day (one inch per month) - and they don't always follow a straight path through your tissue. So "pins and needles", sensitivity and numbness can truly last anywhere from one to two years. In the surgeon's eyes, you have a perfectly good, functioning hip or knee, you just have this "other little issue." When I had ACL/MCL surgery and one of my hip surgeries, it took 2 years for the leg to feel normal again - and I still have a small numb patch on the side of one thigh, and a "stripe" about 4 inches long on the other thigh that is painful when the weather changes or I get an arthritis flare.

Muscles only heal if the patient "puts in the work" - getting in shape before, and doing diligent rehab afterwards. That is another reason people get such vastly different results.
PT/Rehab: 1) Takes hard work, 2) Hurts, 3) Is boring, 4) All of the above.

Here is my opinion - wait until it interferes with your life - either you cannot do what you need/want to do because of the joint condition, or because you are sleeping so poorly you have no energy.
BUT --- Don't wait too long - if muscles are weakened because you cannot be active, recovery will take longer. AND -- the older we the longer physical recovery from surgery takes. My ortho happily did my initial surgeries 4 weeks apart when I was in my early 50's, but says if he has to do them again when I hit 80, he'll want to do them 6 months apart.
Finally - Don't get fixated on the anterior approach. Now that it has been around long enough to make comparisons between large numbers of patients with each approach, the long term results are comparable. In some patients the posterior approach gives the surgeon better access - particularly for small people or those with anomalies in their joints.