Apple TV Remote Control and TV Control of Apple TV Issue

My Apple TV 4K had been working fine and its remote worked fine. I also had it set so my Sony TV remote control could control my Apple TV. Recently, however, the Sony TV remote stopped controlling my Apple TV and my Apple TV remote control behaves a bit differently. The Sony remote continues to work right with the TV and it controls my other HDMI external devices just as it always did.

When I use the Sony remote to select the HDMI input with my Apple TV, the Apple TV automatically wakes, but now it takes longer to do so and for a few seconds the TV says no input until the Apple TV screen comes on. Then, the Sony TV remote will no longer operate the Apple TV (like it used to). Using the pointer/scroll pad on the Apple TV remote will not work initially. If I hit the menu button on the remote, the TV screen indicates that the remote has connected and from then on the Apple TV remote works fully, including the pointer/scroll pad. But the Sony TV remote never works.

Rebooting and resetting does not work. Re-establishing Sony TV external HDMI device controls does not work (only for the Apple TV control won't work). My Apple TV is running tvOS 17.4, and is up to date. (And my Sony TV firmware is also up to date.)

Do others have this issue? Has anyone figured out how to resolve this? I have to think it is as a result of an Apple TV update that was done recently, that must be buggy. Can Apple engineering/technical staff look at this - as it may be more widespread (not just me)?

Thanks,