@devlin016 Did you sort out your issues?  I have had many, many tp-link routers since I began buying them in 2010.  The first time I tried AP mode, which features only on a subset of the units i've had (curiously, all of those had broadcom chipsets), it was disastrous.  I've never activated this mode again.  Instead I've used default router mode with entering a static LAN IP address , turning dhcp off.   For routing, you can't directly enter a  new default route, but you can achieve it with a series of static routes to effectively redirect the gateway to your real gateway.  This makes NTP and firmware update checks work successfully.   I've been running the C2300 as my wireless AP , setup as described above, for 6 months now, no problems.

Regarding auto reboot, I used to do that, but now I don't do the daily automatic  brute force reboot because I worry this could corrupt/degrade the router's flash chip.   Sure it worked with routers in the past, but wrecks havoc on a raspi SD card and  I have no way of knowing if these new routers are using men-disk to delay flash writes etc.   So now I control the relay mostly manually,  and have a script running on the embedded Linux device to automatically handle the situations that can be detected/automated.

Over ten years I've realized that one  cannot depend on TP Link fixing firmware bugs.  You have to buy the router you're considering, and immediately test it to see if you can configure it to make it work the way you need it, out of the box.  When I buy one that fails this test, I immediately return it for a full refund.  Unfortunately there just isn't any other way I've  found that you can protect yourself, and third-party firmware flushes Wi-Fi performance straight down the toilet, without fail.