This update has come as a great relief as the issues were bugging me and now I know it wasn’t just me getting bugged by them.

One of the fixes in the January 25, 2022—KB5008353 (OS Build 22000.469) Preview, has improved Nvme SSD speeds. Because of this bug I had gone and purchased and upgraded to a new Nvme drive hoping for big improved speeds, only to be rather disappointed by a small improvement to what I was expecting. I will post a 2nd test result once I have the update.

bench nvme — The Samsung Nvme SSD 980 should be achieving 3,500 Seq Read but is only 1,244.

I will be looking forward to the muted sound icon, taskbar issues on a secondary display fixes.

Full list of the updates

Updates an issue that causes the audio service to stop responding on some devices that support hardware-accelerated Bluetooth audio.
Updates an issue that affects icons for apps when the apps are not running. On the taskbar, these icons might display as active as if the apps are running.
Adds a new Your Microsoft Account page to the Accounts category in Windows Settings for Home and Professional editions.
Updates an issue that incorrectly shows the volume icon in the taskbar as muted.
Updates an issue that causes a device to stop working when it’s connected to multiple displays.
Updates an issue that affects the auto-hide feature of the taskbar. The taskbar might not reliably appear when you hover over the primary or secondary display.
Updates an issue that might prevent icons from appearing on the taskbar of a secondary display.
Improves auto brightness to provide a better response under low light conditions on all the supported systems.
Updates daylight savings time to start in February 2022 instead of March 2022 in Jordan.
Adds the HelpWith feature, which uses Microsoft Bing technologies to suggest Help topics that are relevant for each Settings page.
Updates an issue that displays outdated battery percentages for connected Bluetooth devices on the Bluetooth and other devices page in Settings.
Updates a known issue that might prevent some image editing programs from rendering colors correctly on certain high dynamic range (HDR) displays. This frequently affects white colors that might display in bright yellow or other colors.