Issues with 2.4 band wifi

I have these 2 stupid wifi power plugs (had 1 then when i had problems i bought another) neither of them can connect to the 2.4 wifi band
other 2.4 band devices work fine

i see this in the log, any ideas on whats wrong?

Mon Dec  7 23:17:03 2020 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA a0:20:a6:2e:eb:c4 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Mon Dec  7 23:17:23 2020 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA a0:20:a6:2e:eb:c4 IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Mon Dec  7 23:17:53 2020 daemon.notice netifd: wan (2571): udhcpc: sending renew to 10.4.20.71
Mon Dec  7 23:17:53 2020 daemon.notice netifd: wan (2571): udhcpc: lease of 72.35.138.90 obtained, lease time 21600
Mon Dec  7 23:17:58 2020 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA 38:2b:78:05:8e:28 IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 4)
Mon Dec  7 23:18:00 2020 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA 38:2b:78:05:8e:28 IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Mon Dec  7 23:18:02 2020 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED a0:20:a6:2e:eb:c4

ive also tried mixed WPA/WPA2 PSK (CCMP)

they seem to connect in some fashion

Do you own a mwlwifi based device (WRT3200ACM or related)? Those are notorious for having issues with IoT devices based on the ESP8266 chip.

yes i have the WRT3200ACM
Thanks for the response
sucks to hear that but good to know I'm not the only one