Hi John, another welcome.
I hung about 5 kg off the bottom of my first scope\tripod and it helped quite a bit but to be honest the only real solution was to buy up the ladder and get better equipment. But I suggest you persevere for at least a short while till you learn a bit more and also learn the limitations of your existing setup so you make good decisions for your next buy.
Noone here has suggested you find a local astro club but if you can then it's worth connecting with them and attending one of their viewing nights. I'm sure any of them would be happy to help spend your ... err help you determine any upgrades and let you view and compare options.
There are some cheaper Eyepieces that do perform quite well compared to the normal plossls. I have the GSO 15mm and 20 mm Superviews which normally price below $100 and have a good wide field and edge correction. They also work well with Barlows and most scopes. I image mostly but those two are my preferred EPs for 90% of all my viewing and the disparate sizes gives me various options with a barlow.
EDIT
Here's the Bintel page with the EPs' renamed as Bintel but only $53 each, you only need the 1.25" 15mm and 20mm. Barlow's also available from other pages.
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/bi...s-1-25-2-inch/