So for the past several rides I've taken off the Fox DPS 164x42.5 and fitted a RockShox Deluxe RLR 165x37.5mm (which is a remote shock, but I don't have a remote for it yet). At the same sag (by percentage of stroke), the RLR feels more taut under pedaling and rides higher in the travel, but easier to bottom out on bigger hits (but it doesn't feel like a harsh bottom out on small to medium sized drops, though). Still feels plenty plush on rough trails.
My ideal setup now would be to run the RLR with a SID 120 fork both on a Full Sprint type remote. Alas, the Suntour Aion I currently have is so smooth and that I just don't want to spend the extra cash on the SID. I have a 2017 Cannondale Scalpel in my quiver with a Full Sprint lockout setup, so maybe I'll just leave the 936 as it is without lockouts.
Also, Adam @ Carbonda finally shipped me my replacement linkage. Will post an updage once I recieve it and check if they actually rectified the issue which is imprecise tolerances at the upper shock span.