Wireless and backhaul problems with firmware 210, technical observations and tests

I've been trying to diagnose these problems that many people are having and  have been experimenting with a variety of things.  Needless to say, there are clear Firmware bugs, without a doubt.  The system has been highly inconsistent since it auto updated.  The Backhaul being in a constant "poor" state is a firmware problem.  The satellite dropping offline and coming back online is most likely a firmware problem. 

I've spent hours doing wifi scans with multiple tools on multiple Wifi adapters.  Using a Thinkpad with current Intel wifi adapter drivers, as well as a Pixel XL.   I also had both the Orbi router web interface opened, as well as the Satellite web interface opened.

Here's what I've learned so far.  First of all, nearly every single suggestion I've tried hasn't worked.  The whole daisy chain thing does nothing.... at all.  Removing the satellite, resetting, and rejoining the Orbi router does nothing.  Factory reset does nothing.  Every other suggestion does nothing.  

Other things I've learned:

• The Orbi Router uses a group of MAC addresses.  Each one is incremented by one digit on the end of the address (AA, AB, AC, AD, etc).  
• 5 GHZ channel 157 is used for something, most likely Backhaul, but its unclear to me.  On mine, it bounces up and down, goes offline, and comes back online randomly.  I haven't tried to correlate the cycling with the fairly useless lights on top of the satellite, but it seems to follow the pattern.   The cycling is since the firmware update.
• Signal strength on Channel 157 bounces from -38 to -95 in a repeating pattern.
• After scanning Wifi in my area (in the mountains in Vermont, very few houses around, no other wifi networks found, other than my neighbors Synology box) , there is no wifi channel congestion.  With that one exception, EVERY single wifi connection is from the Orbi
• Backhaul switches back and forth between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz randomly, at least according to the mostly useless Satellite status page.  Even though Netgear advertises Backhaul as dedicated 5Ghz, which may be true, and it may think its on channel 157, but the Satellite status screen is murky at best
• The Satellite may in fact use 2.4Ghz for backhaul also.  Its massively confusing from the status page.
• The Satellite uses different MAC addresses than the router.  What appears to be the 5Ghz radio on the Satellite goes up and down, every few seconds.

What I tried:

• The Daisy Chain setting.  Tried it on and off.  Made zero difference.
• Moving the router and satellite to other locations.  Made zero difference
• Resetting, etc.  Made zero difference.

Now....  the wierdest thing ever.   

• I randomly decided to experiment with channel assignment.  Presumably, wifi channel assignments in the GUI have zero to do with the Backhaul, but at this point, I'm not sure that is the case anymore.
• I first started with 2.4Ghz.   I changed the this to Channel 11, mostly because I felt like it.  Lo and behold!  Backhaul status immediately changed to Good!  (not making this up)
• I then tried changing the 5Ghz channel to 44, which caused the Backhaul status to change to Poor!  (huh?)
• I then switched it back to channel 48, and it now gets even wierder...  The Satellite DISAPPEARED....      It then (I guess??) rebooted and reconnected, but now, its stuck on Poor again!

I'm going to do more testing, but I believe that the .210 firmware has serious issues.  It simply does not work correctly.  Even the el cheapo TP Link router at one of my kids houses works more consistently.   Its very flaky to say the least and a major disappointment.   I have Ubiquiti at our main family house and have not experienced anything like this.   I understand that Netgear is mostly consumer oriented, and therefore somewhat shoddier than Ubiquiti, which is enterprise oriented.  But I now have the distinct feeling that the Netgear engineers aren't focusing on consistency as much as they should with this fairly expensive product