There was a time when my automations didn't run well. And of course, it turned out to be poorly constructed zigbee and z-wave mesh networks. @bobbyD gave me ton of advice on fixing my z-wave mesh, while others (@Tony, @ogiewon) gave me advice on fixing my zigbee mesh. It took some time (and a few new purchases - I learned that all repeaters are not equally good), but both my meshes are very performant ever since (going on ~3 years now).
I've pasted a screenshot of my zigbee mesh below. Under the neighbor table, I've highlighted (with green dots) the zigbee repeaters that seem to be better than others. And, as you can see in the route table, with two exceptions, those are the repeaters used by end-devices (red dots).
Notice that "Repeater - Sonoff" and "Washer Light" both have inCost/outCost = 1, and each repeat to 4-5 end-devices. In contrast, "Outlet - Back Porch Lights" has inCost/outCost = 7, and isn't used to repeat to any end-device.
There is no magical wand to fix a mesh network, outside of being careful with device choice and positioning. And ensuring that power isn't cut off to line-powered devices for extended periods.
