Welcome to the board.
I can so relate to your frustration.
Do you have a raise or lower the feed dogs mechanism on your machine?
All my machines are older, but here are some places that "switch" might be located on your machine.
On a Singer 404 - there is a lever that moves back and forth - located on the right hand size of the machine bed.
On a Singer 237 - there is a knob that turns located on the right hand corner of the machine bed.
On a Pfaff 1471 - I need to open the door to the area that holds the bobbin case - then there is a thing that pushes to the left for "Feed dogs up" and then I push it to the right for "feed dogs down" It moves less than 1/4 inch. There is also a "half down" thing for lowering the presser foot for darning/mending and FMQ.
On the Bernina 530, there is a fairly large knob near the bottom on the "control tower" - below the stitch length selector.
If you still have the manual, that might give you some clues.
Also, many machines have a "presser foot pressure adjustment" - that adjusts how "hard" the presser foot is "down"
You might consider looking at that, too.
Good luck with the problem.