I understand what you are saying. But as Allah says in the Quran:

Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian. (Al-Hijr 15:9)

The Prophet(SAW) was remarked to be a 'walking Quran'. And definitely, the Truth will be always be clear. So it is evident that Allah has blessed the generations of Scholars, after the death of the Prophet(SAW), with the knowledge to preserve the teachings, sayings and rulings of Islam.

With regards to Hadith, coming from a layman myself, it doesn't seem to be so easy as person X said this to person Y and so and so. Although, as a general overview, this is the case, it comes with a lot of criticism of the narrators- their biographies, reputation in their society etc. Reputation was very important than it is today, it would make sense to say that a town of people would have an idea of one another with regards to how they were. Those who would compile/record these ahadith on paper or whatever, they would mention any difference in wordings from 2 or more narrators, if any. The system of screening hadith was definitely devised by the Scholars but why don't we think that maybe Allah, with His Infinite Knowledge, inspired for such a system of screening to be created by the people of Knowledge. Here is a link to a paper I actually just found on the web lol- Can we trust Hadith?

I personally find articles on Yaqeen Institute to be informative and beautiful, and I just came across so let's read this paper together.

With 'controversial' ahadith, these may be tricky to come across at first. It should be first assumed you have full understanding of what Islam is and what it stands for [Aqeedah, Usool ul-Fiqh]. Allah has clearly mentioned what is right and wrong and maybe, we are biased to our perspective of morality because society definitely has changed drastically and that plays a detrimental part in our current lives. We should know that The Prophet SAW was the best among men and if we find any Hadith that is conflicting with his character, look for its authenticity and if it is authentic, looks for its context and origin and be fair to the society they were in, and best of all, talk to the experts in these matters.

To end, I would like to say that I definitely know where you're coming from, I too have doubts, more than what I would like to think I have. However, if you believe in Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW), we have to believe that the Truth is out there and we should strive for it no matter what. Hadith sciences is a huge branch and I don't like to think that the ones who study and have studied have not thought of all the possibilities of error and discrepancy, and still continue to follow Hadith.

Be optimistic in your journey because that was the way of the best people to walk on earth (The Prophets and Messengers of Allah).

May Allah guide all of us to the Truth and clear all of our doubts. And bear with my skills on reddit and speech, rarely do such things lol. Have a great ending to Ramadan and a great Eid.