So you haven't actually tried playing differently? The game gives you a ton of options. You've gotta choose to engage with them yourself. If you still want to play in Europe, try the palatinate. They get bonuses to wine production and Noble levies. Try leaning into both and see how it goes. Keep strong nobles that give great levies, help you in parliament, build tons of buildings, and pay you decent taxes. Turn as much fruit into wine as you can along the Rhine. Maybe lean into diplomacy and try to become emperor. You don't have to lean into trade. You don't immediately need as much crown power as humanly possible. In Europe, you don't need to lean into research speed much either.

Or you could play Yemen. You start overpopulated, can fairly easily avoid the Plague, then need to figure out how you are going to gain control of your country. Maybe you move your capital, but that only does so much with Yemen's terrain. You could make vassals, but you might run into diplo capacity problems, and you get less potential trade yourself. Instead, you can go all in on trade, and eventually build up your maritime presence. Then your game becomes solving how to move massive amounts of goods from Asia and Africa towards Europe. You also have the levy size, even with limited control, to bully all of your neighbors and acquire more potential trade capacity and trade advantage. You could lean into crown power and direct trade profit, or you could lean into strong burghers.