yes, no.
if you think newer kernel had attansic NIC driver within(which i can't say about. ask Linux kernel forums/gooru) - its may help.
yes its safer (for hardware and config and ROS itself) to downgrade, but if upgrade to ROS6.xx resolve problem(by newer driver in newer kernel), downgrade similarly - return it problem.
so downgrading make sense Only if you plan to switch to NIC, supported by ROS 5.xx.
but again i think in both cases make sense to change NIC to something different. even cheaper realtek, or atheros -branded NIC or intel(among supported(by ROS) models from them) - would work Way better. just saying.
good luck, anyway.