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When it comes to the Milky Way, I have always found that GOTO devices and star charts are a disappointment for looking at the objects in the Milky Way.....numerous dark nebulae and star clouds simply do not make it into the databases. The Best star chart for the Milky Way is a good image.
A good finder telescope is a must for accurately moving the telescope to the target object....trouble is that many commercial finders have rather narrow fields and they also do strange things to the image orientation. My 12inch Dob has, mounted on it, a TelRad with most of the luminous rings blocked out (less red light, so as to enable background objects to be seen properly), together with one half of a pair of 7x50 binos.....
the optical "sighter" gets me close to the object, and the 50mm finder allows me to get the object so it is in the field of the main instrument.
In fact, if you can get a finder with a correct image orientation and a seven degree (or more) field, it does save a lot of nudging the telescope here and there and hoping that the naked eye "sighter" will get you right onto the object.
Another point is to use a very low power for acquiring the object in the field of the main scope; the wider the telescopic field , the easier it is to get an object in it.
I have always invested in the widest possible angular field (actual field in the sky) eyepiece for use in the telescope....this saves an awful lot of blundering around, with a "narrow porthole" medium power view that seems to move everywhere in the sky except where the object is!!
It sounds like you are being too hard on yourself, kitsuna, as you are finding a lot more objects, and seeing a lot more, than other people of your level of experience!
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