This may sound like heresy, buuut given your top soil is drying out too fast, consider watering so thoroughly so that the whole tree is completely saturated... then, cover the top of the soil with a woodchip mulch.
This will stop the top soil evaporation and help even out the moisture throughout the substrate. Then, do not water until the soil is completely dry down 2 or 3 inches into the soil under the mulch.
Idk how other experienced members (rockm, shibui) feel about this. Next year repot into proper fast draining soil.
or, if you want to take a chance (which you may need to now that the leaves on your tree sound like a box full of candy wrappers) do a proper repot now but do not trim any roots, leave as much of the root mass as you can but clean the soil away gently.
I honestly dont know what I would do in your situation.
