Aftermarket Radio Upgrade Opinions please

Greetings all and thanks. Reading these threads has been a big help.

Install is done and one goal is not met. I am happy with what I have so far.

2010 Nissan Frontier LE long bed Crew cab.
Pioneer AVH4200NEX installed. Sounds Great. Integrates with my android just fine.
Using OEM antenna for XM, all good.
Installed and programmed Metra Axxess ASWC-1, latest firmware and confirmed with tech support wiring and programming good. Talked to support twice. They were responsive and seemed very confident. I am 66 years old and have been in tech my whole career. So have some level of understanding.
Did Bluetooth bypass.
Volume up does seek back and volume down does volume up. I tried reversing wires before I called in. That just reversed the wrong results to different controls. Support said all I could do at this point was clean the controls on the steering column. I told them that they worked fine on the OEM setup. They said the OEM setup had much greater tolerance for resistance anomalies from dirty controls. I guess that is possible.

My hope is some of you with experience can give me some feedback.

1. What is your opinion?
2. How do I get to the controls to clean them safely?

Thanks
Bill