Backgammon Experience

Hello my sisters and brothers of backgammon lovers. I'd like to ask you about some personal experience in the progress of skill improvement. I know the game since 10 years, but never really went deeper into it. Since more than 3 months I'm playing intensively, started on BG Galaxy, and went straight over to NextGammon (best choice so far). Meantime I was able to raise my skill level, I managed to reach performance ratings of expert, sometimes even better, sometimes worse, but most of the time below 12 (error rate). And still there is so much more to learn. Now I am playing XG on computer against an expert bot in the tutor mode since a week. Sometimes I still reach high performance levels sometimes expert, even world class sometimes, but more often I seem to play way worse suddenly. Extreme Gammon often corrects me and gives me hints, how I should hit with immense risk, leaving blots in positions I would never come up with, for a slightly better winning chance. Those moves often seem to lead to my blots getting hit, and having a way worse winning chance afterwards, than I would have had, chosing the slightly worse move. I clearly understand, that certain risks are necessary, sometimes I can understand why it should be done like that and I try to adapt. But now I find myself playing way worse in the rating, because I can't seem to figure out when it's the best move to be all open, and when it's wrong to hit in the homebase with a little prime leaving the hitting blot open... I'm currently in the state of sometimes feeling like an upcoming expert in the game, and at the same time I sometimes feel like I don't know a thing about the game. Because I just cannot figure out why the best move is the best move in certain situations, even more when the risk is so high, that it seems to put me in the losers position straight in the following opponent's move. All the "Hit'em for god's sake, even if it means to get hit in reverse 3 times" hints, followed by "You wanna hit? Performance level set to beginner..." (😂) confused me a little to be honest. This is absolutely no rant :) I just wanted to find someone to talk about this, who can share his or her experience in the progress of becoming a backgammon expert. Has anyone made comparable experiences? Is there a way to understand more in depth? Best wishes and have a nice day