RAXE500 New Firmware 1.0.12.96 released

This may be the first report of this that you've seen but according to Netgear's own release notes for Firmware 1.0.12.96 there is a known 2.4 GHz connection issue with it.  The 1.0.12.96 firmware release notes clearly state:

Known Issues:

• The Nighthawk app and router web interface don’t successfully complete the OOKLA speed test in PPPoE mode, but the speed test does work normally if you run it from the OOKLA web portal or OOKLA app.
• Clients cannot connect to the 2.4 GHz band if it functions with a 40 MHz channel width.

My 2.4GHz band with current settings has been rock solid since I purchased this router in 2021.  This problem appeared within hours of updating to this firmware version and has been re-occurring every few days since after having been restarted to fix. I've reset it to factory defaults and manually reconfigured to no avail.   

I'll roll back to the prior version this coming weekend.