Great write-up. I've seen the lessons you describe here echoed by many experienced game developers- the dangers of increasing scope, the importance of seeking feedback, and so on. The fact that you're able to identify and communicate those lessons after looking back on your work says a lot about you. Self-reflection is absolutely easier said than done, so props to you for putting in that effort and improving.
In my experience, the most common advice that professionals give to new game developers is to finish their projects. You're past the "new" stage, but I still think you'd find value in cutting your scope back and releasing projects like these. If you have 16 + 40 levels that aren't finished, polish 7 of them and ship it. You've already got these on itch.io- is there an extra 5% that would let you change the tag from "in development" to "released"?
The only parts of this post I didn't understand were "Tech dolt dramatically chucks pencil..." and the bit about interdisciplinary mountains. I think I figured out your intent but the cutaway metaphors lost me. You're good at describing what you did, what you learned from it, and what you want to do differently. I value that way more than vague self-deprecation. Just my personal opinion.
