Rant from a deluded "artist"

Oil painting has been such a frustrating and painful medium to get into. It's like my brain doesn't get it. And apparently, oil paint is supposed to be such an easy and forgiving medium ( I'm either being gaslit or maybe I'm just dumb). I have been trying to get into it with no success. It seems that my daily doom scrolling and youtube video watching is just me trying to avoid actually painting.

A few of the issues I'm dealing with it: #1 solvent free painting. The consensus seems to be that it's easy to go solvent free, but no one truly says how to do it. Try to look solvent free oil painting, almost all the articles/videos will be about not needing solvent to clean your brushes. Why are we pretending that the only time solvent is used during the oil painting process is when cleaning our brushes? Tell us how to do a thin layer without solvents if it's that easy. How about underpainting? Hum? Nothing?

#2 Oil paint straight out of the tube being too thick to spread. Gamblin paints are always recommended, but I am struggling with how stiff they are (I have the Artist Oil Colors Introductory Set). When I load my brush and drag it on my substrate, I can barely make a 2 inch line before it skips and stops. Which might imply I'm not using enough paint right? But once I clean my brush the amount of paint released is maddening. Where was all that paint?! It feels so wasteful.

#3 How do I know my brushes are any good? Is it normal for bristle brushes to be this greedy and thirsty? I bought them on amazon. Bristle brushes are a popular choice, but I don't if there just not for me, or if the kind I'm using are not good.

These are just SOME of the problems I'm dealing with. It's been over a year since I act on my dream to be an artist, and I have yet to do a single painting. It's disheartening to come on here, or any other platform, and see other paint like it's a piece of cake. Sorry for the very "ranty" post. This could have been a journal entry lol