So, I may have found the solution to my wake/sleep issue. Since I made this change, it works better than ever. I went the Apple Support call, and they never talked to me regarding the TV settings on my Samsung. Digging around, I found this Apple article: Control your TV or receiver with your Siri Remote or Apple TV Remote - Apple Support
It seems my TV did not have the HDMI-CEC settings turned on. For the Samsung, that is Anynet+. At first after turning it on, it wasn't helping. However, the Anynet+ setting states this definitely needs to be turned on to have other devices control the TV. I persisted. I turned everything off and back on again.
Now the wake and sleep have been extremely snappy and works every time. Before, it took about 15 seconds for the TV to get turned. Why it was working sometimes without this on is mystery. Maybe Support assumed HDMI-CEC was already on because it worked sometimes.