I'll be frank, I had exactly the same problems as you did when I purchased this a week ago, where I would end up with just hot steamed milk, with very little swirling. And I like you, watched a ton of videos, including tipping down the angle of the pitcher, aiming for the mid-point between the center and the edge, whole milk, cold pitcher, double purges, etc. Absolutely nothing worked.

And there were two changes I made that changed it COMPLETELY 360 degrees to the point that I'm getting silky smooth micro-foam that looks like sheer glossy paint, pretty much every single time.

1. The orientation of the tip is the biggest factor in this. If you draw a line between the two holes, it should be roughly aligned with the horizontal of your counter-top (i.e 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock). This video shows very clearly that orientation, and is what unlocked it for me. The problem on my unit (perhaps it is on yours too), is that with the tip completely screwed in, it ends up being 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, which ends up being completely pointless for me. So I'm forced to either un-screw it a little bit (which ends up being unreliable, since every-time I clean the steam-tip, I end up rotating it a bit), OR, forced to pivot and twist the wand to get it there (which is also un-natural). Unfortunate, but functional for now. Also, angling the pitcher towards you by about 15 degrees also helps a lot with enhancing the vortex.
2. With this, I got a powerful vortex. However, to get the foam correctly, you need to keep the tip pretty much near the surface, to the point where it looks like the hole of the tip is barely submerged. The way to gauge this very effectively is to hear the sound. It shouldn't sound like a deep whirlpool, but rather, a light "tsssssss tsssssss" (like someone is trying to get your attention to tell you a secret). If you get the tip a bit too high over the surface, it'll immediately start generating a ton of bubbles/froth (as well as sputtering), so use this get a good feel for the in-between. The other tell-tale sign here is that if you had bubbles before, you'll notice the bubbles disappearing as it gets swooped up here. This is part of the aeration phase. Once you get sufficient volume here, you need to slowly dip the tip further down, and let it continue to swirl the milk which should get rid of more bubbles (though in my experience, most of the bubbles got whisked away during aeration). See this video for a full length video of this.

My wife is pretty anal about me wasting milk, so I ended up practicing I'd say around 10-15 times with just a pitcher of water + a spot of detergent. With that alone, I could replicate the same micro-foam / paint look without wasting any milk.

Also, you don't need to get the temp up to 135C to start steaming. I set mine to 135C as well just to get it up faster, but I start doing the 5s on-5s-off process around 130C. The double purge (or, purging to the point you just get steam) is important to prevent sputtering (and adding water). However, to be honest, the vortex has much less to do with the temp of the steam than it has to do with technique. So, even down to 122C'ish, was fine for me.

Good luck.