The community has waited six months for a firmware update

OrbiTechDude... I appreciate your points fully. It is incredibly frustrating to learn of this level of poor product quality when you think that this is not their initial orbi release! They've had 700 and 800 series products where the basics of IPv6, memory management, UI device/state presentation, mesh technology and overall network stability matters should have been worked out. A four RBS limit was known back in the 7xx and 8xx days several years ago. I actually asked and have written chat response saying that this problem was resolved in the  9xx series. Clearly it was not as admited to in a recent chat. 

I too was working in a home where there are NO competing WiFi signals from neighbors - the only RF sources from one HP printer (which I turned off) and some nanny-cams. But NG tech support jumps to the conclusion that my problems were due to wireless factors. The joke is all RBS are 10G LAN attached to RBR. Go figure. 

I am fortunate because my client didn't fire me and decided to give me a second chance. I ended up reviewing the NG small business PR60X with WBE750 access points and the ASUS ZenWiFi. I ended up going with the ASUS product as I have over a hundred systems installed with ASUS over the past decades. As an old man, I just need a life without drama. I felt ASUS would give me that. 

I respect all your posts orbitechdude (others as well you know who you are). What it amounts to was my customer has only a femto-second of patience. He decided to 'chuck' the Orbi because we haven't any knowledge on when' NG will fix the problems. 

I just installed the ASUS gear 3 days ago using the same 10G LAN switch and cabling used in the Orbi project. All satellites are wired backhauled and the network monitoring gear reports no device outages/crashes, no outages by Verizon FIOS, all wired client-side devices remain attached since the install. 

The call I received from NG support an hour ago confirms I did well to abandon the Orbi for this size product. The message received from NG regarding this new firmware was that it addressed an improvement on stability but not to the level I needed (i.e., 1 RBR and 6 RBS). They said the engineers were not able to get beyond 4 RBS and maintain stability; they asked me to prune the netz down to 4 RBS. WIth 20K sqft to cover that is not possible. I did ask if they would share where the instability is occurring, but no commitment to find out was offered; and thus.. A "Waiting for Godot" situation was happening given no detail on cause was shared nor a committed to delivery date to fix the max 4-RBS limit. They also said that Orbi 970/971 was not designed for larger homes. Something the NG advertising literature, websites and sales channels omit from their guidance!!! Shame!! 

The small-business product was tempting but given this was a 'Second/Last Chance" situation for me with this long-term customer, I had to eliminate as many unknowns as I could to succeed. 

You're right asking to be part of the 'inner group' to know what work arounds you might be able to share with others on this forum. But in the absence of such inner participation, we can only guess  at possible remedies based on the actions we have each taken. We generously share those thoughts and ideas on this forum which is all we can do; unless you can do a back-hoe replacement.  

I wish you happier days and better success soon.  Thank you for your detailed lists and insights.. marcel villaflor for the "BedfordHome"