FWIW, I had similar issues with the Orbi and returned it after extensive troubleshooting. Sadly, I was also enamored with the "Second Coming of WiFi" that the Orbi promised.
Netgear acknowledged the issues, but the fixes are still slowly rolling out--typical of how first-gen products go (i.e., see the Microsoft Surface Book). At some point, a transaction is a transaction.
I had this severe disconnection issue with every single device: not just Apple, but also Android, Roku, Liftmaster, TiVo, Xbox etc (i.e, the whole network died every few minutes/hours). And, to be fair, even if it was only Apple devices--Netgear should've figured these out much sooner. A year late and you can still buy a new Orbi with these issues?
My last hypothesis was that most people had smaller locations so they didn't actually place their Router and Satellite that far apart, so their clients ended up just connecting to the Router anyways? Or they didn't use VOIP (which is very time-sensitive, so any hiccups are immediately noticeable)? Or maybe some people actually measured solid connections, 24/7, without any loss of connection even at their Satellites.
I believe I'm done with WiFi systems, mesh, and the traditional bridging/extenders. I could've spent all this time and money on just routing an Ethernet cable between the two floors and setting up two access points.
It'll be a royal PITA, but pick your poison: struggle with first-gen systems with nebulous "fixes for widely reported problems" or brute-force your way to the gold standard.
