My personal recommendation:

Sometimes you think you have open a channel to the "right" node but you get the wrong one. Some wallet providers have several lighting nodes and it is easy to open channel to wrong one. Example: https://amboss.space/search?term=dm9sdGFnZQ==

You end up thinking it should be a simply payment but ends up with many hops and "large" fees.

Lets simplify the troubleshooting (as you might do in your tech job).

What I would do in your spot is open a channel to a know node that you will end "wanting" in the future. Stacker News Node is a good one (https://amboss.space/node/03cc1d0932bb99b0697f5b5e5961b83ab7fd66f1efc4c9f5c7bad66c1bcbe78f02)

Once the channel is open and has several confirmations try funding your SN wallet with some sats.

This test will end being just your node and SN node. So simple payment path.

Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions.