I'm hoping this could be improved upon with the upcoming upgrade?
Definitely. One of the things that will be improving with the coming updates is the payout queue. Specifically, the percentage of blocks that make it longer will be reduced to near zero.

very glad to read that! I am waiting for a month as well. I guess pool's luck is very bad now days

a question:
if we find a block with a very large fee (like 10 btc or more, due to some wallet's error) then are we able to send back that fee as a pool, technically?