So - the console is 'so small' because it's all the screen space I'm giving it ... I have other screens I want to see as well ... and we don't all have multiple 4K monitors to play with ( no matter what we aspire to :-) )
If it helps ... the problem exists when the console is run at full screen also ... it persists even after a full reset of identities and registry ... the number of receivers appears not to be a factor
however, what seems to trigger it is how I pull up the top bar ... if I use a single click ( the auto-dismiss method ) then the problem occurs almost every time if I use the double-click method ( locking the bar until dismissed ), it works fine - or at least, for the number of times I've tested it so far.