Well, I got a new mesh router system up and working... It seems that things are running smoothly.
One thing I learned from this process, though, is that on a new system (went with a different model now) even with the same SSID and same password some devices won't connect well (many do).
About 70% of my devices connected again with same SSID and password, but some either didn't or were inconsistent. Among the worst were the amazon echo/alexa devices, the simple ones often needed power cycling and the screen-based ones needed to manually connect. Fire tablets also needed to manually power cycle and manually reconnect to wifi (after forgetting the old mesh system's SSID).
I'll bet someone on the forum could explain this (I can't).
Could the factory reset of the orbi, in my testing, have been the equivalent of a new router and new network despite same SSID and same password?
