After going through with a few more of these, everything was done within 24 hours (typically before noon the following day). All of the best rate guarantees worked in my favor when expected, and when they didn't I understood why.
One didn't because Agoda was charging the same Yen rate for park hyatt, although their USD was using a better conversion than everyone else, and another failed because the room dropped from inventory after I had submitted it. I learned from this one however and when it came back into inventory later in the day, I booked it to make sure it held and that I could submit a BRG again. That worked without issue. I even had an agent confirm a BRG based on a room type they didn't have available (the agent must have read it wrong)
Based on this, and covering about 5-6 different agents across my claims, I do not believe they are actively plotting to deny claims. It is still disappointing that they don't allow claims using some sites, and I'm sure Shelly B is probably not the best agent. If you run into an issue, just resubmit the claim.