Also I didn’t have enough character space left in my question but I wanted to report that your advice was spot on for my 5 yo with a bad attitude last month. I lowered my tolerances with him and his older siblings and after one rough day without his privelages when he finally started earning them back I have not ever seen him happier nor had better behavior from him than during the 4 hours he decided to earn them back and the remainder of that day when he was on a roll. It was the first I could really see that being consistent was actually easier. Whereas when my tolerances were too high it felt too hard.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!