I mean yes, as long as the start button is maintained pressed, toggling the reset button does latch the circuit.. but only as long as as the "start" button is maintained pressed, guess I am just confused by calling the button start. I would call it run.

I can't seem to identify the latching (in a flip-flop sense) behaviour in this circuit. Although the OP does not really specify where and what to latch, mentions only momentary switches and that it is controlled via a mosfet perhaps there is not supposed to be any latching behaviour. Maybe I'm just confused with the the use of the word latching when actually no real latching behaviour is desired.

This sounds like ground leakage to me in combination with a shared neutral. How many poles does the sub-switch P33 disconnect ? if only one pole, and the neutral is directly connected it could be that other loads on other circuits have small current leaking to earth. Measure the voltage from each of the socket leads to earth under the different conditions.

Actually if you look closely at the picture, it appears as if there are two triangular, sloped electrodes. It is a thin diagonal cut between the rectangle.

Yes, impedance matching is the correct answer to operate at mpp given a load which will accept that available power, the problem is that the load that the user is connecting will most likely not operate at that point.

With such a circuit, especially when you don't have control over the charging algorithm, you will very seldom be operating at the panels maximum power point. The problem is that the OP is claiming that he is getting 10W from the panel and only 2W out to the phone, thereby saying that the efficiency is so low. But they are probably not properly measuring the power output from the panel (input to the regulator) and the efficiency of the regulator is within spec and its just consuming what it needs from the panel.

@TonyStewartSunnyskyguyEE75 you do not necessarily need to operate at Vmp, you can work at any point of the power curve of a pv panel. Its fine to work at a point which is different than the maximum power point. Normally you attempt to work at Vmp because you want to get the most juice you can from the panel given you have a in comparison "infinite" sink, i.e. an empty battery or the grid.

The variables that affect this are mainly, cell temperature and incident irradiance on the panel, I did not get into details as for initial diagnosis of what appear to be happening it is not really needed, as long as the panel has more power available than required by the load

@TonyStewartSunnyskyguyEE75 : max power available @ STC (standard test Conditions) i.e. 1000W/m2 25ºC Cell temp, from the panel is given by the panel, its called Vmp = 18V, the max current at that point is called Imp = 0.56A , Max Power available , Pmp = Vmp*Imp = 10,08 Watts

You can try to write directly to the manufacturer, I have gotten lucky with the technical support service sometimes.