I cannot turn off the comment moderation or get it to operate reasonably

I cannot turn off the comment moderation or get it to operate reasonably.
I want to allow unsigned in commenting as long as a name and email are entered.
Akismet is enabled, and so is Wordfence but I doubt that’s related, the comments held for moderation appear random, maybe one in ten, some spammy content makes it through while very benign content is held for moderation after same person has posted many others successfully.
I tried the following methods:
– checked “Allow people to post comments on new articles”
– unchecked “Comment must be manually approved”
– change spam link number (up to 99 and not working)
– checked for empty line or space in filter boxes, also tried adding a word that would never come up.
– tried with and without “Comment author must have a previously approved comment”
– unchecked “Users must be registered and logged in to comment”
I’d be happy to just switch moderation off fully.