some examples of 'dueling lines' as defined and explained by Brooks in his first book
https://screenrec.com/share/Y9ZgDEXkUx
https://screenrec.com/share/Y9ZgDEXkUx
that does not mean the strategy is wrong....it is being applied wrongly...I don't understand why you cling, for so long, to a strategy where you continually lose! Why not find a new strategy rather than spend years of misery and penury with a strategy that clearly impoverishes you.