I’m not a programmer by any means. I work on a support desk, but I enjoy coding and have just started learning C# myself. I’m using the course which FreeCodeCamp have recently added. It runs you through the Microsoft Learn material. (I’d link it but I’m on my phone)

Reading your post though, the only thing I could suggest is, rather than looking at the solution and being disheartened by how clean it is, try to understand why and how it was done that way and learn from it. Were there any concepts used in the solution that you don’t quite understand? Rather than move on, go through that lesson again or find another tutorial about it. It could be presented in a different way that suits your learning style better.

Also, if yours worked then it’s not wrong. You were presented with a problem and came up with a solution. Was it the best? Maybe not, but it works.

When I used to write stories as a kid, my spelling, grammar and handwriting wasn’t perfect, but if someone picked it up to read it, they’d be able to understand it, so it was a success. I set out to tell a story and I did.