That problem with RX throughput on ether1 of hEX refresh does not seem to be universal…some people have the problem, some people don’t. It’s not clear yet exactly why. Some have speculated it may have something to do with some weird interop issue with the device it is uplinking to, as at least a couple of people have put a dumb switch between their hEX and their ISP uplink, and “fixed” the problem that way.
So just because @FezzFest has not seen the problem with his hEX S refresh does not mean it doesn’t have the problem, or that MT changed something between the two designs that would account for or work around whatever that issue is. It could just be that he was lucky, and wouldn’t have had the problem with the regular hEX refresh either. The only way to know for sure would be to take a hEX S refresh over to somebody who has a hEX refresh and who is suffering from the problem, and have them swap out the hEX for the hEX S with identical programming while placing it in an identical situation (plugged into the exact same internet connection, etc.), and see if the problem still happens. So we will have to wait for somebody with a poorly-performing hEX refresh to “take one for the team” and order an S to try out.
Either that, or wait for there to be a larger sample size of hEX S owners who can weigh in. If literally nobody with the hEX S comes forward with this same complaint after it has been on the market for a few months, then perhaps it dodged that bullet after all…