As well, I am wondering about LPEM because it noticeably drops my scoring hashrate on Slushpool which makes sense but since reward is tied to it I am wondering if I am actually losing money.
you are certainly losing money by scoring less hashrate on the pool ,it all boils down to how much is the power consumption , however if by "noticeably drops" you mean that hashrate on pool side is lower than what your miner shows, then you are indeed losing money without taking any other factor into calculation, if that's the case you should change the firmware.