Starter Recommendation
My wife and I, like many others, struggled to get a good loaf for a while. We were using a powder starter that we had to revive ourselves, and I suppose we didn’t give it enough time (we fed the thing every day for weeks to months). Long story short, I decided to buy other starters off of Amazon (Living Dough brand). Within a few feedings these things were basically tripling in 4-6 hours. Every loaf we have made with these starters has been great. So if you’re feeling discouraged, it could simply be a weak starter.
We also followed a Magnus sourdough calculator to knock down our hydration until we got the hang of it (https://www.culinaryexploration.eu/sourdough-unchained-classes). As we made some good loaves we’ve slowly started increasing the hydration and they get better and better.