Tikz was so frustrating that I ended up drawing my stuff in an SVG editor and importing a high-resolution export from there. I know it's not as cool or scalable

Tikz was so frustrating that I ended up drawing my stuff in an SVG editor and importing a high-resolution export from there. I know it's not as cool or scalable as a proper Tikz diagram, but if you have any value on your time, then I just do not think that Tikz gives you enough to be worth it, at least for relatively simple drawings.