Your 'crappy welder' is a better welder than my 'crappy welder'.
The weld in my picture is crappy. Yet, it is all that is necessary for the job.
Do you have a gas-less wire feeder? They mostly provide poor results, unless we talk about industrial applications of gas-less (flux cored) welding.
The upper end of manual welding is an interesting place. Welds that are required to pass very high standards are far more interesting to do than basic welding.
Correct preparation of the material to be welded aside, the weld pool is everything. That small pool is the 'world' of the welder. Little things, like watching light reflecting off the arc at the edge of the pool in a fillet weld, tell me that the pool is forming correctly which will result in perfect fusion at the weld toes.
That is why I emphasised the need to clearly see what is going on.
Welding is a little like riding a motorcycle in the correct gear. Riding at 50 mph in 2nd gear is like having the amps turned up way too high for the lower wire speed/smaller electrode size.
Riding at 20 mph in fifth gear is like having the amps way too low for the high wire speed/larger electrode size.
A welder needs to experiment with the amps to see what the difference is between higher and lower.
Too high amps generally will display as a flattened weld with much spatter and burn holes in light material.
Too low amps will give a raised weld with less spatter and little penetration.
Whether it's welding on an army tank with 1.2~1.6mm wire or the subframe of an airhead with a 1.6mm electrode, getting the amps/wirespeed/electrode size matched for a 'given weld situation' is the key.
Give me one hour, and I will make a person a more than competent home welder.
