Surface Pro 8, USB woes & queries

Hi Surface Pro community, I have a couple of queries & experiences I would like to ask & share. I wondered whether anyone else had encountered anything similar.

We recently have purchased 25 Surface Pro 8's as part of a trial to see whether they are a worthy candidate to replace our laptop estate. We have noticed a few odd issues around USB devices and although I have pretty much sorted it I wanted to clarify a few things I've had to do.

Universal docking stations, travel hubs, USB-A headsets, external microphones & external monitors have all had problems which seem to stem from a few main causes.

We have noticed that both USB C ports behave differently. Any hub, dock & device can only seem to work properly when plugged into the port as circled below. Does anyone know whether they are actually different, I can't see anything to suggest they are.

External headsets and microphones experience inaudible playback if the latest Smart Sound Tech USB for Audio driver is set to the 25/08/21.  We have to use the 11/05/21 and the problem goes away.

Lastly if a hub/dock is plugged into the other USB C port and a connected monitor supports audio that appears to cause conflicts. Shutting down the "Intel Audio Service" and also making audio device selection inoperable, i.e. it hangs and crashes, then any application like Teams will not work either.

I've found that I have to locate the device, typically a HD audio driver for display audio (under hidden devices ) "audio inputs and outputs" and disable. Regardless, we find we have to find these sound enabled monitors and disable them (any brand we have). Then when we plug the dock back into the working port everything works fine.

There definitely seems to be sound related issues when using the other port (top port), whether its a device of its own or via a dock. I can use a USB-C monitor in the top port, no problem, as long as the sound is disabled.

Anyhow still testing but wondered if anyone else had any of the same problems. Or this may help someone.