Good news for me. Appears to be my own idiocy
when i was packing up the new lights, i discovered the grey "adapter" connector was not seated firmly in place on either light evidently. I assumed that it would have good fitment from the vendor and I didn't bother to check that when I installed them initially. I seated them both firmly and then went out and unplugged my old lights and plugged these in and they function flawlessly.
for any other members that haven't installed their's yet, make sure all the connectors click and firmly seat, not just the one from the car to the lights but the additional one that is on the light. Now going back out to finish up but I'm relieved it was my user error apparently. That would explain why they initially worked and then went intermittent when that connector must have jarred or wiggled loose.