Basically what Linksys confirmed (what I already knew) as a first step. The only Problem with the step is that it's not consistent enough to know when to test. For example, I don't "think" it happened yesterday and I haven't noticed it today either. It Did happen while I was at work Wed though. It's really hard to ping down. Honestly, I thought it was doing it when I started watching the AMZ Prime Video content at first because it just Happened to do it when I'd watch! And then it did it other times and I became confused.
I really hate the new Smart Firmware on these as it's rather limited in function in some places (but awesome in others). I Hoping it's the modem as it's theirs and I'm not quite able to replace devices right now ($$). That said, I looked at an Awesome Asus that includes the pipe-dream that is channel binding. :p
Honestly, this is what I'm hoping for as it's the easiest (if not the most tedius). I'm currently running something like 20+ devices on the router (I got the EA9300 tri-band for a Reason), so any routing device change will be a headache.
Funny enough, I've had the opposite experience. The ONLY reason I've upgraded (from previous Linksys sitting in their boxes) is because I knew that I was going to overburden the device.
I guess I was Hoping to get a known solution from all this, but thanks for the confirmations. I've been self-networking since before CoX, but it's still my weakness diagnostic/knowledge wise.