Text Messages still not forwarding reliably in July 2025. Help?

This has been an ongoing, random issue for years across MacOS and iOS versions and and I'd really like to see it fixed -- or get help fixing it, please.

I have an iPhone SE running iOS 18.5 and a 2024 M3 Macbook Air running Sonoma OS v14.7.2. (I cannot update to a later OS at the current time; have important work software that would not be compatible above Sonoma.) I am signed in to the same account on all my devices, have iCloud and forwarding set properly, etc. etc. My devices are all on the same wifi network, as well.

Too often, text message forwarding from phone to laptop is delayed. Sometimes slightly, sometimes very, and sometimes very-very delayed. For example, I have a text message in a group thread on my phone that came in nearly 20 hours ago and is still not showing up on my laptop. Fortunately, in this case, it's not an important message but this is a frustrating and sometimes really impactful problem. I rely on receiving timely text forwarding on my laptop for work, etc. I'm a "laptop guy" not a "phone guy." I have missed doctors office texts, work texts, and personal texts for long stretches, from time to time.

What to do? (Please don't bother with the standard how-to instructions; I'm familiar and my settings are done correctly.) Many thanks.