Don't feel bad. I could find no reports about it either, and nm-applet is one of my pet peeves. There are far too many causes for it to behave inconsistently. Its problems are not caused by Linux Lite, Ubuntu or XFCE, but rather by its own attempt at universal performance across the RHEL and Debian spectrums, and the mistaken idea that it can't be secured on a standard user space graphical user interface, and now the new issue of the increase in local available viable SSIDs. I love Linux networking but I don't like the way network manager's kernel dependencies are handled, and now worked around with systemd initialization. It should be a freestanding application in user space started after login is complete by the user from a menu. Forcing an applet to contain the GUI with vital information would then be unnecessary. To me network manager is a partially complete piece of software if it is really an attempt to get the user out of the CLI. I am in fact personally working on improving it for more new user friendliness though it's proving to be quite an annoying project. The Qt implementation of nm-tray seems to work better but it's not feasible for Linux Lite currently, and really still leaves the user dependent on an applet.
TC