I think I figured out the Backlight issue, and why it turns off automatically after 30 seconds of non-physical activity in most apps.
After more flashes than I care to recall (at least a dozen in the last 4 days), I think I know why my backlight doesnt work as it should in apps such as TomTom (i.e., it won't stay on when it's supposed to, and in other apps it altogether ignores the power settings and will auto-off the screen in 30 seconds rather than my selected timer settings).
After running the Internet Sharing app a few times (usually a handful), followed by a few soft resets, all hell breaks loose and the backlight starts exhibiting anomalous behavior; i.e., backlight turns off after 30 seconds when running TomTom, or IMMEDIATELY after watching a Youtube video with the built in Youtube player/app, whereas before there would have been a delay in the YT app.
I've confirmed this by not running internet sharing for 2 days after I re-flashed again and everything worked as it should.
Once Internet sharing is ran a few times, then it's only a matter of a few resets until this behavior is re-exhibited.
Then, the ONLY way to fix it is by re-flashing again.
I never ran into this problem before with any of the other MRs ONLY because I never used internet sharing so frequently (my cable modem went down a few weeks ago, so using the hacked data tethering).
Now however, I went back and tested ALL of the other MR's and they all exhibit this same behavior, at least on my phone when internet sharing (with data connection rather than pam) is used.
If I don't run the internet sharing app, then all is well.