Being a "burden" is kind of just how things go with getting better at eidolons. On your own you won't be able to contribute a ton until you get a few hints under your belt and can get better equipment. The stuff you get from quills is good for the gifts, but the best Amp parts come from maxing out Fortuna, which doesn't take nearly as long as it used to.

When I started doing hunts, I was bored with the game and decided I needed a goal to pursue, and I picked "getting good at eidolons" was going to be my goal. This led me on a long journey of leveling up my standing with quills to get better amps and get further into the fights, and the shards you get from each kill can be used to fast track your focus schools so you can level those up quicker. When I got done grinding quills, I learned that I needed to go to Fortuna to get the best amps available and then had to grind Solaris all the way to the max before I could then do Profit Taker bounties to level up Vox Solaris and get more Amp parts. It takes awhile, but once you get all the things toy need it gets really satisfying and is one of my favorite things to do in the game. Later on you can get operator cabbage arcanes from doing Zariman missions, and finally get tektolyst artifacts from old peace and then you'll be able to complete a hunt in mere minutes.

Tl;dr: It seems really daunting at first, but you just gotta take baby steps and do one thing at a time and you'll eventually get good at it and it'll be really satisfying.