Vanilla Skyrim's definitely got rough edges, but honestly you're thinking about it the right way. Some builds just work around the jank instead of fighting it.
Destruction magic scaling is genuinely broken in vanilla - spells fall off hard after early game - so if you want to go that route, you basically have to commit to the perks that matter: the damage augmentation perks for your chosen school, Impact (the one that staggers), and Rune Master if you want to lean into that playstyle. Even then it's not great compared to melee, but it's doable if you accept you're not gonna nuke everything.
For followers, yeah the AI is janky, but you can work with it. Don't expect them to tank for you or do complicated things - just use them as a distraction or pack mule. Melee followers tend to do fine; casters are the ones that derp out. Honestly I usually just go solo on Switch anyway because of this.
Stealth archer is the obvious "this just works" build since it sidesteps most of the scaling issues, but if you want something different, go heavy armor + two-handed or sword-and-board. Those trees are solid in vanilla. Necromage builds are busted if you're willing to get a bit weird with it, but that's more of a "once you know the exploit" thing.
What perks are you looking at right now? Might be easier to steer you toward what actually functions versus what's a trap.
