Update - Scanned with Insta-D and was inconclusive on the clock spring and didn't find any other issues. So I decided to go ahead and get a clock spring to replace the original.

Installed the new clock spring today and SUCCESS, that fixed the issue. All the steering wheel buttons are now working. So for future people looking for this issue, if your fuses are all okay and you haven't caused your i-drive to go crazy, I would highly recommend the clock spring be the culprit. The additional problem with not being able to change the radio station on a random basis also appears to be corrected too.

Thanks for the recommendations.