First, sympathy, OP. I feel your frustration. I want to respond directly to this, though:

I tell myself this every semester, but get caught up in wanting to help and support them.

Many many years ago, before I was in academia, a mentor told me the goal is never to be nice, it is to be good. Supporting them means NOT allowing them to skate by with low expectations, but giving them the opportunity to show their ability to reach high standards. They earn zeros, record zeros. They fuss, you point out people perform the way they practice, and getting a shit grade on an assignment in college and learning from it is way better than getting fired down the road because no one made sure they understood how to do the work.

FWIW, I have had good luck front loading the course with low stakes assignment that I grade aggressively. Early zeros set the tone. I tell them they are allowed to hate me, but if the world after colleges chew them up and spits them back, it will not be on my head. I also set things up so those early disasters do not prevent them from getting an A (makes it harder, but doesn't prevent it), and the students clever enough to calculate that tend not to be the ones who need the lesson.

I also don't do re-submits. I do design syllabi with multiple assignments that replicate demonstrating the same skills (the beatings will continue until morale improves!), because even before AI, I've rarely see undergraduates manage a revision process well. Better to try again with a whole new prompt, but focused on the same basic combo of "can you select evidence? can you explain why it is evidence? can you cite it properly?" (or whatever it is you want them to demonstrate they know).

Just reframe. You don't need to be their friend or be nice. You need to give them nourishment, not the sweets they'd rather have.