Don’t rule out sedevacantism until you have done your own complete research. Most folks who stick their nose up at it really don’t know much about it at all. It is a scary route to take for sure, but we are in scary times. Even though I come off as a sedevacantist myself I still wrestle with it, but I can accept it much easier than accepting a heretical pope or more. It makes much more sense to me to conclude that the chair is currently empty than obeying a heretical pope (and the heretical teachings that flowed from VII).
In the end, it’s not as easy as saying “it’s not the way to go”.
An interesting encyclical is “Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio,” by Pope Paul IV, 1559. It deals with “what happens when a Pope or any other person in authority is a heretic?” It basically says that by virtue of their heresy they have no authority and anything they say or do is null and void, even if they have been elected to the office and have been installed. Since it is possible to have a man be elected Pope and have everything he says and does be null and void, it is possible that the Chair could be “vacant” without being vacant. Of course, the Encyclical goes on to say that he should be removed from his post, but it doesn’t say how or by whom. Evidently, the possiblity was presented that the Pope could be a heretic, but it wasn’t seriously considered, because there is no resulting explanation of how to enforce it - especially if all the Cardinals are heretics, too (which I don’t believe is the case in the Church today). I believe there are a handful of Cardinals left who believe as the pre-VII Church believed, and they are the leaders of the Remnant. I doubt that they look at themselves that way, but I do.