Whoah, I've found a way to workaround the problem with wireless adapter, and I don't even have to reassign IRQs, looks like it shares it with video adapter and all to takes is "xset dpms force off" to turn the display off so it can associate with the network, after that it works fairly consistently. I did notice earlier that it often succeeds when left alone for extended periods of time — so that is why 😂
Well, I have another nice old machine at my disposal. Too many of them TBH 🤪