How closenis your zstick from the lock when you include? I own three of these and rejoins are a MASDIVE pain in the butt because i have to literally get extension cords and move my zstick to within INCHES of the lock (in reality i enlist my wife to hold the stick against the back cover of the lock body) while including… Had to do it when Inwas in SmartThings and had to do it again ehen I moved to HA. Onve I get them all included I run a repair on the device to solidify the routes. Its just a quirk of the lock. The newer ones wuth the programming button are much easier… But yeah. Get CLOSE, like wuthin inches close. And then do all those things you mentioned (factory reset, then exclude, - yes you need to do both, another quirk of the older Schlages- then join)
Other than the dodgy join process theyre excellent devices…