iOS 15 update, Unable to join the network "#####-5G"

I was having issues with our iPhones (running iOS 15) joining our 5G wifi network, at first I thought it was my wifi router. I did all the resets, EVERYTHING, so please don't suggest that again. I even played around with the settings, nothing was working, but I could see that other devices were still connected to my 5G wifi. My iPad which at the time was running iOS 14.x and it was connected to my 5G wifi. Not thinking that iOS might be the issue, I updated it to iOS15.1 and right away it is unable to join my 5G network.

So I searched and found that I'm not the only one having this issue. I had a VPN at one point, it was recommended to delete it. I did, and it still will not join. My girlfriend has never had a VPN and she still can't join the 5G wifi. I also played around with all the settings on the iPhone, reset network connections, restart it, forget the network, uncheck Private Address (which actually worked for 30 seconds on my iPhone, but not my iPad and not my GFs iPhone) etc... you name it I did it all. Still will NOT connect to my 5G WiFi.

APPLE PLEASE FIX YOUR iOS to allow me to connect back to my 5G wifi.

Tech info. My wifi router is a Netgear Nighthawk X10, AD700 Smart WiFi Router Model R9000. I have the security options set to WPA2-PSK [AES], (I saw a post recommending WPA3, mine is too old for that I guess, only other options are WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES] or WPA/WPA2 Enterprise).