Your timeline does not appear to be terribly unusual (unfortunately, the norm ranges from slow to very slow, to damn slow, if not even slower), although it appears many are finally seeing real progress. Quite a lot, however, are still among the long suffering. So you see the disparity between how it has gone for you versus others.
Mostly you (in particular, along with those who applied just before you in the latter part of 2019) are likely among the group of applicants who have been detrimentally affected most by the Covid-related disruption of processing.
Of course there is always a possibility there is some underlying substantive cause for IRCC to have concerns, like an application made with little margin over the minimum presence requirement, or an application or presence calculation containing discrepancies with other sources of information, among a range of potential issues which can affect processing timelines. But any such cause for delays are generally known to the applicant and so should be no surprise.
Beyond that . . . Please forgive me for reading your query literally and being picky, but one might ask how is it that you both took the test online "outside Canada," and yet you say you "didn't leave after applying for citizenship." Obviously you did leave Canada after applying. (I did as well, many times, and there was no problem; but that was all well before Covid.)
For a couple who did not "leave after applying for citizenship," perhaps a total stranger bureaucrat might scratch their head if they note each took the test while outside Canada, not at the same time but in different years.
I get it. Not really asking. It was temporary. And undoubtedly a mere coincidence you were each abroad for a mere vacation when scheduled for the test. Bad luck, one might think, if luck had anything to do with it.
But perhaps somewhere in that vicinity lies the rub. While there is nothing wrong about being outside Canada after applying, and there is NO indication that IRCC is "punishing applicants doing the test from outside Canada," even those who are or appear to be living abroad, of course that is a factor among the constellation of factors that IRCC will consider in evaluating the information provided by an applicant (how so and to what extent is a subject that tends to trigger controversy, many taking sides depending on the extent to which their view is oriented more to how things should work than how they do work).
In any event, how this can influence things varies very, very widely, from NO perceptible effect (which is probably the more common) to potentially raising questions that can trigger non-routine processing. Depends a lot, a real lot, on the particular circumstances in the individual case. And here too, things like whether the applicant applied with a decent margin over the minimum presence requirement, or whether IRCC has identified any discrepancies or omissions in the information the applicant provided, can have a significant influence. You know your case, your circumstances, and should be able to fairly easily discern whether IRCC might have questions. It's the latter that has the most influence, that is whether there are other factors potentially inviting questions.
Moreover, if you are now IN Canada, settled and staying, the fact that the test was taken while outside Canada should have near zero impact.
