How do I not feel useless?

I am a returning player after a couple years absence, I'm currently level 406 and I feel like I have as about as much of an impact as noobs do now. In the last month of me being back I have reworked my build from the ground up six times and nothing seems to work. Explosive pepper shaker? Useless. Gauss minigun? Useless. Enclave plasma flamer? Barely even tickles if it registers a hit at all. I have been trying everything, bulletstorm, onslaught, consumables, nothing seems to work.

Even my power armor that can tank just about anything without me taking more than five hit points of damage folds under a single melee attack. The perks don't seem to help much either, I've tried so many combinations, but the best I can do is damage comparable to what I was doing back then and that's a fart in the wind compared to what I'm seeing other players my level doing. I've looked up guides, and most of them aren't even achievable until well after level 1000, and yet somehow I'm seeing players my level manage just fine. The raid only encapsulates it, I'm almost completely useless on everything except for the drill. Weirdly enough I've gotten the best results so far with a Tesla Cannon.

Right now it feels like I'm expected to play catch up for a year only for the next difficulty Spike to be out by then.

It feels like I get to spend a day playing the game only to be forced to spend the entirety of the next day trying to get more ammo.

How the heck do y'all do it? This crap genuinely seems impossible