Broadcom is famous for their terrible Linux support (typical android style binary firmware blob dump). Many drivers are unofficial, only reverse engineered. Some commenter here even mentions patching binary blobs to fix issues!
Murata Type1GC mentioned here, goes back to 2015. It also has several compromises to keep size small. Hardly stellar config!
What would you recommend instead that fulfills a similar role?
It is quite possible unit is fine, but there is just interference at your place. Those small antennas are not good at dealing with it.
bottom barrel price hardware components usually mean top quality component that failed QA and then went on a lower quality bin and then passed QA there.
it's not a different design or anything. the car analogy would be all factories making only 4x4 cars and the cheap cars just being the 4x4 with the trans axle broken or something, resulting in two wheel drive (doesn't even care which two wheel because the cheap bin QA just test if the car moved). you probably got a chip with two trans axle broken and the chip limped with one wheel drive thru QA and they called it a day.
thanks artificial Monopoly protections via bogus IP laws.