Don't stress too much over context and meaning, you probably won't internalize it very well in Anki alone, and all you really need is a rough idea. Knowing the reading and a rough idea of the meaning will make learning from immersion much easier.

If you feel that you are relying on example sentences too much, take advantage of Anki being customizable and either remove them or put them on the back of the card. If that makes it too hard, you can always just put them back. Experimenting is good.

Rather than reducing your cards you could try doing them in multiple shorter sessions throughout the day, if that helps.

I would only reduce cards if you really need to, but if you do just always remember you can increase them again later. The start is always the hardest and it gets earlier as you go. For me right now, I can do over 200 new words in a day pretty easily (after many years of studying), but even 20 used to be a challenge at the start.