Troubleshooting Connection Download Speeds (China traffic shaping??)

[FezzyWig 5]

I am using pf-sense 2.4.4 on a netgate SG-1100, configured for AirVPN using the guide listed on this site.  I have a tp-link, c2600 dumb AP for wireless, configured with OpenWRT 18.06.05.  Up until a few weeks ago, my connection was perfect: AirVPN connection to Gliese worked well at ~20mbs download speed.  Fine for my needs.  Latency is bad, ~300+ms, but then again, I'm in China and it's ok for my needs.  

Now, I am frequently experiencing the spinning wheel of frustration when I am streaming video on my Apple TV.  3-4 times of ~30 second pauses in a 5-10 minute period is not uncommon.  Because I like to "tinker" with my settings (I recently tried the 19.07 rc2 for OpenWRT), I'm thinking I did something to cause the problem, but that doesn't appear to be it.  I have reverted to the settings I had when all was working ok.

I'm thinking it may be traffic shaping by the great Chinese firewall, but I'm not positive.  It could also be a configuration issue on my end.  One reason for my thinking it's a configuration issue is that when I try to login to pfsense from a network connection (not wireless), the pfsense dashboard doesn't load until my internet connection is working.  Strange.

I've monitored the download speed traffic via pfsense, and I can clearly see when download speed via the openvpn wan connection crawls to next-to-nothing.  Short of doing that, I'm not sure how to troubleshoot the issue further.  Since I'm a hobbyist, and not a trained network engineer, any advice to trace the problem would be of help. 

Thanking you in advance.

PS  Yes, this is in all likelihood NOT an issue with AirVPN and I am definitely not complaining about AirVPN service.  I am and have been a very satisfied customer.  That said, I know there are a lot of smart people on these forums and due to the totality of the issue (AirVPN + OpenVPN + China + networking) I'm thinking someone smarter than me may have a clue to troubleshoot.