I've had having plenty of problems with Apple devices not communicating with one another even on iOS 14 and before: from the Apple Watch not unlocking the phone

I've had having plenty of problems with Apple devices not communicating with one another even on iOS 14 and before: from the Apple Watch not unlocking the phone when wearing a mask to macOS Safari no longer prompting for unlocking the Keychain or unlocking my Mac via the Watch, etc. I just assumed that it's because I have a Series 3 Watch and it's getting to that point where it's getting less functional with each update. Shame. The worst problem I've had consistently across multiple iPhone models and OS versions is trying to answer phonecalls on the Mac/Homepod and the caller on the other end being completely unable to hear my microphone which basically made the feature completely useless to me because I cannot leave my phone upstairs or downstairs and just rely on being able to take calls on an Apple device near me because there's a major chance that it's just going to end up in me frustratingly looking for my phone around the house while the caller is confused and 'hello'-ing at me. It doesn't seem to be a networking issue. I recently went through my keychain, updating re-used passwords, including on my Apple account. That was an interesting experience as well because re-enabling my iCloud account ended up in several lockouts due to it asking me for passwords or passcodes of random devices on my account and then refusing to accept any of them despite me entering the correct ones. It's a crying shame because all of these issues seem like software bugs to me and I don't think there's going to be a real solution to most of them. But it's given me a motivation to peek outside the walled garden, at least.