I’m seriously considering hiring a different agent and would appreciate your opinions/personal experience on whether I should be looking for another agent or be patient.

I would also say that markets like Manhattan are not super representative of most markets in the US - a lot of foreign investment I'd imagine in NYC, Miami etc - I'd guess a lot of these cash purchases are more about exchanging unstable or risky foreign assets/currencies for perceived stability/safety of US top metro residential real estateI think in a lot of other markets where this isn't relevant - I think most are cash offers being "king" as not having appraisal or other contingencies that might sabotage the sale after 30 days or so and make people re-list (sellers will take less to avoid this risk and downside)

If you were checking the market weekly, you would know approximately how long properties are taking to rent, which properties are renting and which aren't, pricing strategies, and more.If you dropped the price and it's still not renting, then your price is still too high or you need to be more patient.

Families want safety and a big house, so they are willing to pay top dollar. 

It also took me down the rabbit hole of the safety of escrow deposits which seems quite frightening.

The primary benefit of a smaller  renovation is you'll have a larger safety net if the renovation gets out of hand, the property won't sell, or if it takes longer than expected to rent.

., a cafe where patients can digest bad news - not a medical service provider or medical support provider, but ancillary nonetheless. 

I remember the reports of the first cases coming out from Wuhan in December of 2019 ,and obviously since everyone knows there are only 4 comprehensive bio safety level four laboratories on the planet, Moscow, Paris, Fort Detrick-Maryland and of course Wuhan Institute of Virology, and given that there are over 100,000 small town with wet meat markets throughout China, one doesn't even have to ask the question "what are the odds?"

I'm only seeing one rule (safety). 

If you know you average booking lead time you can be more, knowledgeable about when to make adjustments or when to be patient.