RAX80 Smart Connect connecting devices incorrectly

Yup, after much testing I've come to the conclusion that Smart Connect is a hot mess on this one. I'm sure part of the problem is that its a "black box" in terms of whatever voodoo Netgear is using to handle the allocation.

Signal dropouts (likely as a result of band steering), an inability for my HomePod to find my iPhone, even when they're clearly on the same network, and peformance that's sometimes inscrutable are just a few of the problems that disappear once you turn off Smart Connect.

Band steering like this is a function of the router, however, not the client. Yes, the client decides which band to connect to initially, but then a router that supports features like Smart Connect can direct that client to switch to a different band. The RAX80 doesn't handle this well at all. On my network, pretty much everything sits on 2.4GHz, even though there are about two dozen devices on that band, and the occasional times that something appears on the 5GHz band, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why. 

By comparison, while Asus' GT-AX11000 doesn't handle it flawlessly either (I agree with the point that somebody else made about the AX chipsets, as it works brilliantly well on Asus GT-AC5300), at least Asus offers you the ability to customize the rules that steer traffic to each band, so you can tailor it to your preferences and get a better idea about why it may not be working the way you expect.