Yeah, I agree. If I want good bread I go to Breadsmith, a bakery franchise that makes real, terrific bread. It costs $5+ per loaf.
I bought a bread machine and only made one loaf so far. It didn’t turn out well, I think because I measured the flour incorrectly. I just stuck in a measuring cup and dumped it in the mixture. I guess you’re supposed to spoon it out or something. I read the best way to measure flour in recipes is to weigh the prescribed amount.
Bread making requires some practice and some experience. You are correct the measurements for the ingredients have to be pretty correct and exact, unless you are making a fairly primitive easy to make type of bread. Keep at it, you will succeed. Don’t get discouraged by an example of one.
Bread makers are great.
Try again.
Maybe with a premade mix.
I never had much luck with a bread machine.
Have had better luck with kneading it for a long time with my KitchenAid mixer.
I watched a bunch of bread videos earlier in the year. The #1 consensus on what causes a bad loaf of bread is too much flour.