This paper develops a symmetrized framework for the analysis of the anisotropic advection–diffusion Lattice Boltzmann schemes. Two main approaches build the anisotropic diffusion coefficients either from the anisotropic anti-symmetric collision matrix or from the anisotropic symmetric equilibrium distribution. We combine and extend existing approaches for all commonly used velocity sets, prescribe most general equilibrium and build the diffusion and numerical-diffusion forms, then derive and compare solvability conditions, examine available anisotropy and stable velocity magnitudes in the presence of advection. Besides the deterioration of accuracy, the numerical diffusion dictates the stable velocity range. Three techniques are proposed for its elimination: (i) velocity-dependent relaxation entries; (ii) their combination with the coordinate-link equilibrium correction; and (iii) equilibrium correction for all links. Two first techniques are also available for the minimal (coordinate) velocity sets. Even then, the two-relaxation-times model with the isotropic rates often gains in effective stability and accuracy. The key point is that the symmetric collision mode does not modify the modeled diffusion tensor but it controls the effective accuracy and stability, via eigenvalue combinations of the opposite parity eigenmodes. We propose to reduce the eigenvalue spectrum by properly combining different anisotropic collision elements. The stability role of the symmetric, multiple relaxation-times component, is further investigated with the exact von Neumann stability analysis developed in diffusion-dominant limit.