dfk41 The coarser you grind, the more floaty the coffee grinds will be. The finer, the quicker they will absorb water & sink.
Go 35 on the Duo, 21:300g. Stir just enough to wet as soon as you can (0:50?) with 3-4 strokes max. Cover the brewer until the machine clicks off, then lift the cover to record dry bed.
FWIW I don’t stir any pour overs, nor Melitta Aromaboy brews at normal drip grind, only if brewing with finer grinds.
The exploding egg brew was with a different coffee, Myanmar I thought?
All brewing is essentially as hard/easy as each other. For drip you need to identify your preferred ratio/strength, pour rate (handled by the machine) & grind size (you started fine, then overshot coarse, now working back).
The coffee not exactly matching the notes is not necessarily a malfunction with the brewing (hopefully, I’ll be able to comment later in the week). All brews being bad, or ‘neither like/dislike’ would be a malfunction. Yours are currently better than neutral preference (7?), an average of 8/10 would seem within realistic expectation to me, 9’s will be rare, 10’s may be very rare indeed/absent.