Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. After working all day perfectly (probably lulling me into a false sense of satisfaction lol) it develops a new problem.
The Broadcom provides me with flawless wireless and Bluetooth, at the expense of my computer randomly and completely freezing during network usage. I can't pin down a cause on this: there's nothing in Event Viewer that gives any leads on what's causing it, and the problem isn't limited to just Windows; I also tried an Ubuntu live USB disc, which promptly froze upon opening the internet browser. When it freezes, I mean that in the most literal sense possible: the entire computer stops whatever it's doing and either stays completely frozen and unresponsive to everything (mouse doesn't move, ctrl-alt-del has no effect, etc), or goes straight to a black screen. Sometimes it works for a good 30 minutes, and sometimes it won't even make it past the login screen. I have no explanation for this, especially since it only started doing this about 4 hours ago after working fine all day long.
I don't know what's worse: crappy wireless that drops out, or perfect wireless that crashes my computer uncontrollably. In the meantime I've reinstalled the Intel card and it hasn't crashed since. :(
I didn't realize it was so difficult to make a working wireless internet card these days. My last laptop (a 2009 Toshiba) never had a single wireless issue like this, ever.