What kind of controller are you using for your Hi-Fi music system?

Part of this is the general Wi-Fi issue. If you live or work in a heavily populated residential area, Wi Fi can be pretty unreliable thanks to channel congestion, made 2x worse by XFinity doubling up the number of channels a single router uses.

First, I always hard wire streaming services. So my TV/streamer/Roku/Blu Ray all get cables.

No one should buy single band routers anymore. 5GHz is not only faster, bu the channels are far less congested. I live in a medium density apartment area. 6-8 apartments per building, lots of space between them. 2.4 GHz is completely unusable. On Android, if you are interested, get the app Wi Fi Analyzer. It will really help you see what your environment looks like, and help you pick less congested channels.

The only thing I really use my android phones for are to manage the streamer.

I don't see the issue of Samsung vs. iPhone vs. LG a real issue at all. What I do see as a problem is software compatibility and maintenance. What good is that Aurender streamer if iPad upgrades and the Aurender software no longer works?

Another issue is just perception that iPhone is "high end" so several streamer makers have been iPhone only. Too bad, I won't touch the Apple ecosystem (personal preference). 

I really wish there was a handful of great music controlling software which would talk to most streamers, rather than having to rely on proprietary software.

I've tried on 2.4GHz and it worked poorly. Not only that real number of channels is limited to 4 (since each channel is at least 3 channels wide), but also microwave works at the same frequency (exact frequency of one of the channels).  When microwave was on music was interrupted.   5GHz has one big advantage - it penetrates walls poorly - interfering signals will be suppressed.  I switched to 5GHz and had no dropout since (couple of years).  Also WiFi makes computer irrelevant (any computer and any playback program will do).  You can also use computer for other things and it won't affect the sound.