@jimrjones,
If I am not mistaken, I do not believe that a true mesh configuration can actually be achieved in a LAN setting, or at least easily, as there will always have to be one node that is communicating over the WAN connection with your ISP.
The Decos are meant to create something of a faux mesh that technically falls under Star Topology with Daisy Chaining, the devices are meant to connect with each other over long distances so that this exact situation does not occur. If your farthest node can see a connection to the main node that is usable for data transfer, it appears that the deco may favor this so that latency and wireless overhead is not introduced to the connection.
Once a deco unit establishes its route to the main node, this will not change unless the node is disconnected or restarted. As such, sometimes rebooting the furthest node after the network is configured will cause the connection to daisy chain through nodes.
The development team is slowly rolling these features out to users in the latest firmware updates. This last week actually saw a few different deco models being updated to support the feature, with additional models to come as the firmware is developed. I will try to post updates to the forum when new models receive the 1.6.0 firmware the adds theses features.