Thanks to swardoyo and SidSloth for the suggestions! Unfortunately, the DNS change didn't help and my router (Netgear Orbi RBR50) does not have an option for "WPA2/WPA3" which is the default selection for wireless networks on IOS14 (may have been that way before too, never bothered to check as it just worked). Although I cannot validate what was present on my phone before updating to 14.x, I have an old iPhone 5s running 12.4.8 and WPA2 by itself is an option and this phone has no issue with internet connectivity. My guess would be something to do with the WPA2/WPA3 security type currently set on IOS (could have been present before, not sure) and the lack of the option on my specific router.  I have an email into Netgear for some insight. Fingers crossed as this is impactful - cell reception in my area is not good so WiFi is used for calls. Thanks for the support and insight everyone, it is greatly appreciated!

As an update for my specific scenario, I did change the security option on my router to WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES] and now connectivity to the internet seems stable. My theory may hold some water but curious what others are seeing.

In response to tarnation's post - Thank you for providing this detail! The change of iOS' WiFi default security settings versus what was available on my Netgear Orbi router was my suspicion (noted in my posts on the previous page) and I'm happy to see it confirmed from Apple as I have not received any feedback from Netgear. What's concerning is that your interaction with Apple support confirms they are aware of this issue but it may come down to having to buy new network hardware. Not ideal.

In response to Blort's post: This is what I had to do as well, revert to a lesser level of security, which iOS warns against doing, Ha! That said, once I did this, my wifi worked as expected. I sent the text from tarnation's post to Netgear, waiting on a response.

In response to MooreKen099's post: How did testing with the new router go?