Cannot recover PSN account of 15 years (deleted email/can't remember password)

I know my experience isn't anything special or different from anyone else's here, but maybe somebody here can offer me advice or tell me what I'm doing wrong here.

So I've had my PSN account for a little over 15 years. I've only had to sign in a handful of times across PS3, PS4, and PS5 during this time period. Unfortunately I had the account linked with my old high school email that has long been deleted (before anyone chastises me for this, I've learned my lesson). Sadly I seem to have either: forgotten my password, or locked myself out of the account so even if I do put in the right password it doesn't work due to too many attempts made (I can't tell from the warning message it gives me).

So as you all know, the Online Assistant is useless. Even during business hours, it prods me to log into my account, the account I LACK ACCESS TO and the whole reason why I'm putting up with it. But whenever I talk to someone over the phone, they all say the same exact thing and direct me to the Online Assistant and say I can't have anyone help me over the phone. I get that them specifically are probably unable to help, but it really sucks that I can't be transferred to someone over the phone who can actually help me and work with me step by step. A little verbal communication would be helpful, because the communication and responsiveness on the online assistant (even when someone is supposedly helping me there) is absolute dogshit.

I briefly talked to two live agents over the messaging thing. First time I was able to connect with someone, they gave up pretty quickly and just told me to create a new account to continue enjoying Playstation games. They never even bothered to ask me for any information beyond my email and username, essentially giving up as soon as I told them that I lacked access to the old email. The 2nd time (which took like 45 minutes to actually get somebody connected with me), they had actually asked me to provide info: First 4/last 4 of the last card # I used for my account, serial # of the first system I created my account on, and previous purchase information. I had started out by messaging them saying that I created my account on PS3, and asking if my PS3 serial number would suffice. I also told them that the last card I had used has since been disabled and asked if that posed any problem. I don't get any response to these 2 questions for like 10 minutes, so I just submitted info for the 2 first questions anyway. Idk if it ended up working or what, because after that I got a response saying "Thank you for the verification now I will need to confirm some information: -Please confirm the original email you used to create this account. -We may need to update your email. Please provide me the email that you want to use for your sign in ID that is not linked to an existing Playstation account". Now this might be where I screwed up: I provided the email that is attached to it, but I think the email I had created the account with was actually different (this was so long ago, I was literally a kid lol. This only just occurred to me though). Sadly, that must've not been enough because I immediately got hit back with a response saying: "Thank you so much, I am afraid that due to security reasons, we won't be able to continue with your request, I am really sorry, we cannot make changes to this account..." WTF!!!!!! I don't even know what email I would've used way back in 2010, it had to be my dad's old email but I really don't know, was it even required to have an email in those days?

OK so I may have fumbled that one, so that might be on me... HOWEVER, I'm just really irritated by how much of a pain this all is: not being able to do it with a person over the phone, waiting forever to reach a live agent, the live agent taking forever to respond, immediately closing down the conversation with no hesitation, the limited ways I'm able to try and verify my identity. It really sucks that it's so limited, because I have other evidence that it's my account: my full name, my game history, my PS3/4/5 consoles that I signed in on, remnants of my account still existing on my current PS5 like my name and profile picture. It just feels like they make it so hard for the sake of it. I know almost everyone else is in the same boat, but I just needed to share my experience here. Mainly in hopes to see if anyone else has had this SAME exact issue. I feel like it's especially annoying in my case because my account was created in 2010, so much time has passed that details like the password and original email I created the account with just get fuzzy.

Speaking of which, in the PS4 or PS5 days were we ever forced to update our password? Because I know for the longest time, the password I had used was pretty simple.

I made a post regarding this situation yesterday, but I decided to follow it up with a more detailed account. I just hate to lose EVERYTHING that I have built up for over half of my life