Thread Network Won’t Find Accessories When AppleTV w/o Thread is Connected HomeHub

My smart home setup includes the following: Linksys Velop AX series Mesh Router and nodes, 3 wired AppleTV 4K (w/o Thread), 4 HomePod Mini’s (with Thread), a mix of wifi and Thread enabled accessories.

Since os 16.x, any time one of the AppleTV took over as the connected home hub all of my thread devices would show as “no response” and become unresponsive despite my 4 HomePods showing as broadcasting a Thread network.

The work around was always to have the AppleTVs on wifi which then defaulted one of the HomePods as the connected home hub. Under these circumstances the Thread devices would connect to the broadcasted network.

Since update 17.5 the AppleTVs will always become the connected home hub, wired or wifi. No matter what combination or resets, restarts, etc.. a HomePod will not remain as the connected home hub.

It’s my understanding that no matter which device is the connected hub the Thread network should be broadcast by the HomePods and Thread accessories should be responsive. This is clearly not the case.

Not being able to manually select which device should be the connected hub is frustrating and counterintuitive. Other than purchasing one or more AppleTVs with Thread, is there any way to resolve this and have a functioning Thread network with only HomePods?

I called Apple support and got to a second tier representative who was less than helpful. Not knowing what Thread was severely limited the conversation. She moved to end the call by sending me “did you restart” articles before I felt the issue as can understood.

Any insight or solutions from Apple or the community would be appreciated before I spend more money to get the home functional again.