Tubeless fail or bad luck? Do I go back to tubed?

Hey everyone, and thank you for any advice (or pointing and laughing, whatever works ;)!

I'm a big guy (250 pounds) and riding 99% on roads and multi-use trails (no off roading except to get around dogs on the paths :) Help me decide if I've just had bad luck (and lack of tubeless knowledge) or is.. tubeless not for me?

tl;dr:

- tubeless seems very convenient when it works, but not reliable at all; plugs don't seem to hold and can have repeat fails, then what do you do beside go tube out in the field?

- if I'm going to carry tubes for bad luck days, why not... just go tube period, again?

- I've never had repeat tube failures; even with a nail right through the tire, swap tube, good to go another few hundred km; I've got thousands of km on one set of tubes, but no luck with tubeless

- if I go back to tube, do I need new tires and/or rim, or is it easy enough to get tubeless tires on/off when using tube, out in the field? (ie: without air compressor to make them 'snap' in place like you do with tubeless)

the long:

Picked up a new bike near the star of summer (Giant Revolt Adv 3 iirc), with tubeless ready; a gravel bike as I figured a good all-rounder and sturdier frame for my size.

Are these tubeless successes that just feel like negatives, or legit fails of the tech?

1st .. a neautral? experience:

Second or third ride on the new rig (stock tires and sealant), a piece of broken glass in some grass found me and left a few mm slice in the tire that the goo couldnt' cover; I did manage to get about 2km per pump-up so managed to get back home after an excrutiatingly annoying 8 or 9 pump-up sessions. (Didn't have plugs with me, was new to the tech). So... maybe a success in that the goo sort of help it together with a lot of pain ... but if I used a tube it'd have been annoying to swap of course, but it'd have saved the ride. (I used to carry 2 or 3 spare tubes always, before). I don't think plugs would've saved this one anyway, was a good sized slice.

Got new Specialized Pathfinder Pro tires at $80 CDN each (yow!) - little tread on sides, cm slick strip in middle, since I'm mostly on roads, figured that'd get me some speed and a better tire than stock.

2nd .. success experience:

A few hundred km later on a ride, something roadside knicked maybe a 2mm slice in the tire; the goo wouldn't hold (using muck off at this point), but I did have the muck off plug tool with the bacon strips; jammer a strip ion with some tail sticking out by a cm, and kept going on the ride.. got me another 40 or 50km that day, so I was pretty chuffed; 'hey, this tubeless is great, took me 5 mins to patch and go, no taking the wheel off!'

... a tube would've done the job as well, but more effort.

3rd .. negative experience:

2 days after that 2nd event I got time and washed bike down; hard to get the dried on muck off from everything, but cool; 2 days later, got on the bike for a ride and got maybe 5km and pssssssssht as muck off sprayed all over the clean bike and me; sure enough, the plug wasn't holding anymore (got lucky the that day I guess?) .. tails pretty far out; so maybe I didn't jam it in far enough, or maybe it got forced out by the tire pressure (I run at 60 PSI). Fine jammed another.. got about 2km out, blew out again; and again, and again... went through 5 or 6 plugs to get back home; sometimes I'd use wider bacon strips and jam them far in (using the tool on an angle so it could go in deeper without hitting inside of the rim, other times going less deep...) .. didn't matter which bacon width I used or how far in, the strips were just loose in there, not holding on.

That 2nd experience above, was a hot as hell day.. maybe the roads were hot and kept the strips melted in or something? Today not as hot (28C, still hot), but just changing plug after plug, sucks.

... so on the one hand, tubeless got me home with much annoyance. Still lost the ride; a tube would've saved the day.

--> summary of my feel..

Obviously a tube would save the ride in all these cases, but changing a tube is more annoying than jamming a plug in. But it works, pretty much every time, unless your tire has a hole the size of your hand in it.

Tubeless so far for me seems like ...maybe it can save you, but its sure no silver bullet, not super reliable.

Taking a tube with me is fine too but then.... why not just be tubed in the first place then?

I guess I dont' know if I was tubed, would the tubes have popped on the 2nd experience (likely?), but the 3rd experience definitely would not have happened, todays ride would've been fine.

So now this little 2mm slice or so in the tire, that I've rammed a plug in a pile of times and widened the hole.. for _tubeless_ this tire is shot.

But if I stick a tube in it, good to go!

So.. stay tubeless -> buy another $80+ tire, more plugs, and pray I've just had bad luck

Go tube again -> slap a tube (I have my emergency tube handy) in there, and then just keep buying tubes and keep a few backups with me; the tire is still fine as far as tubes go

Risk of tubing / How to go back -> This is a tubeless ready tire and rim, so is it hard as heck to get the tire off and on? When going tubeless you have to use high pressure to get the tire to 'snap' into place so that its sealant ready and not going to leak all over etc.. so maybe if I go back tube I still need to buy a tire or two? Do I need a new rim?