Quick update:
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Replacement mainboard came from Framework, and I verified that PCI was working with the MT7921k m.2 card. Packaging was way different this time, a regular cardboard box but two inserts to keep the Mainboard suspended into the middle. Box arrived in perfect shape but the heat sink has one corner bashed in, and the whole Mainboard was warped a bit. Not enough to keep the screw holes from aligning, but it noticeably sags downwards in the middle.
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CableMatters USB powered nic + switch was having some reliability issues. That and the USB NIC I am using for the WAN port are both Realtek 8152/8153 chip based. The firmware for these in Linux seems to be far from perfect, and Realtek gets the blame. I’m getting better stability out of them by turning off things that require the NIC itself to do work. Checksums, forwarding, offloading, etc. Stability is definitely better but still seeing quite a few USB resets, errors in journalctl, etc. At this point I’m going to say r8152 based networking devices are to be avoided if you have any choice in the matter.
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CF-953AX (based on MT7921u) arrived today. Got as far as testing WPA3, 802.11ac with 80Mhz channels and 256QAM, so basically the same phy link rate as my Wifi 5 R7000P. The chip in this reports it is capable of 802.11ax (HE), 6Ghz, 1024QAM, quite a few other tweaks to get faster link rates. However, hostapd is not accepting the configuration line item for 802.11ax, which I think was not configured in when the arch package was compiled. Looking at doing a custom compile for hostapd possibly. Might try the linux-wifi-creator script also.
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3d printed the back case plate from the Framework Tablet project, a 24 hour long print on my big dumb brute of a printer. Came out pretty good though. Mid layer of the case next.
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Framework still does not have an ETA for when batteries can be ordered from the Marketplace. Big sad face.