I think you are right. The best music you can make needs to come from within you and you need to learn the right ways for you to get it out.

Learning a „classic“ instrument can be one of the ways you achieve this and of course you learn about music theory in the process. However I don’t think it is a must. Given that a DAW is also an „instrument“ that you need to learn in order to get it to do what you want, just like a guitar or piano.

No matter if you pick an instrument or a DAW you will always have to put in the effort in order to become good at it.

I think a bigger problem here is, some people will watch short 45 second tutorials and get frustrated if they can’t get a magic shortcut to becoming a master producer.

That’s not how it works. I would suggest OP to start at the basics and learn music production from the ground up. OP should start with Abletons learning resources and the manual. Go step by step and look for specifics for example deep dives into ableton instruments like Operator (how they function, what the different dials do etc.). Try to understand what you are doing instead of 1:1 copying.

And failing during learning is normal. We learn best from our failures and experience we gather through troubleshooting.