@steeven helped me get back the lost BAT. See this thread:
It’s nice that he helped out and I will give Brave another shot for the time being. But if these issues persist and I have to spend a lot of extra time just to get back lost BAT then I will switch back to my previous browser. It’s just not worth the hassle to me if Brave is unreliable in this way.
But they did make this right with me.
PS: I know it’s not easy to build a new kind of browser but when one makes bold claims in order for people to change up stuff one needs to keep them come true or people will leave.