Air Pod Max: Auto Noise Cancellation loses effectiveness

Not sure if there is a solution for this that so far is eluding me, but I have seen others reporting this ... ANC is just not as effective as it was when I first bought my head set.

I bought a pair for work, and loved the fact that when I first bought them, my whole outside world was zoned out .. now, I'm setting at my desk, and although severely muted, I can hear my son and his friends on the other side of the apartment, and *up stairs* talking and laughing ... and I know ANC is turned on, because if I turn it off, I can hear them more clearly.

I am running latest firmware:

And my charge right now is at 72% ...

From what I've found so far, everyone seems to think its a firmware issue that Apple won't acknowledge, but I haven't found anything that points to which firmware the problem started at ... not that I believe there is any way of reverting to an older firmware, is there?

Has anyone experienced this issue and figured out a way to resolve? Or is it time to research new non-Apple headphones? I like my headphones and ability to easily switch between my many devices as needed ... I'm kind of an Apple Bigot, rather not pollute my environment if I don't have to ..