jives11

Just as an update - we contacted our member of Congress' office and after a lot of back and forth with them and USCIS we managed to get an emergency Infopass appointment and a 30 day emergency advance parole document, and were able to immediately cross the border.

You cannot Intend to AOS.  If your circumstances change you can AOS.  Intent is determined at entry. 
Matter of battista or matter of Cavazos.  Circumstances changing like you were already here and this pandemic came, you discovered you (or your spouse) is sick or pregnant and wanted to stay, someone died so you were here for your spouse, you went to get on the plane and the usc proposed, etc etc etc... there are lots of ways that circumstances can change after entry. 
Most of us can't just drop our lives and move.  
There are LOTS of people on this forum who successfully AOS as Canadians who were just visiting intially. 

Yeah... at this point it seems to make the most sense.  I hope the process goes well for you!  We didn't hire a lawyer, to save money (even though my hub is a doctor he is very frugal!) and I SO regret it!

They still want to know where you have resided for 6+ months. But that's for a different purpose than being able to enter as a visitor.