Gotcha
Based on my own experience since 4.0 there really is nothing out there as to what I would consider advanced as to top down requirements, except for the occasional Epic Twitch cast, that does not recycle the same base ideas and concepts.
A lot of the issues are caused by halfway implemented feature sets as well the lack of base framework building resources along with ongoing engine development that I would consider still being in the alpha testing phase heading towards Unreal 5.
On a personal level I do things different by extension but anything I would have to offer as far as Unreal 4 goes would be obsolete once UE5 hits the street which promises a much more logical modular approach. To put it in perspective at the moment as far as animation systems goes the current feature sets is like trying to do web page development using notepad so your frustration is understandable. Getting the kind of result that you are looking for is a fault of what should be able to be done with in a closed edit environment as would be available in a web page editor.
As the saying goes “It just works” but in UE4 not so much 
That said Unreal 5 looks promising as far as the need for ready made frameworks,plug ins, along with a more modular approach with out having to deal with a from scratch approach as in you have discovered