This is to hopefully resolve the by far #1 complaint my wife has with our smart home. When she turns on a light, AL adjusts it to what it thinks it should be, she changes it to what she wants it to be, then AL adjusts it back.

Could you add a check in after the initial turn on transition for the light? If the light is where AL thinks it should be, great. If it's not, set it to manually controlled and stop adjusting it.