[jeffhuys]

Regarding "in my experience it can be hard to accomplish much in program logic while keeping the WiFi stable".

I've had the same; sorting a big list of numbers or doing any action that takes a few seconds can make the WiFi unstable, disconnect, or not respond.

I'm curious though, there are some dual-core designs with ESP8266 compatibility out there, would that help?

[fit2rule]

I have no problem using coroutines to keep Wifi working fluidly on ESP8266. This just requires attention, its not too difficult to keep the ESP8266 pumping data.