Bret,
First, kudos to you for bringing your frustrations out in the open. I hope the replies you get inspire you.

In general (maybe in your case, maybe not, you have to decide) I notice this: people who tend to want to be a great guitarist often try to skip the middle part where they are an ok guitarist. So they try to play purple haze when really they should we working on smoke on the water. And enjoying smoke on the water. There's a lot to enjoy in just playing some chords, in time, for the whole song.

I would recommend that you try the "songs made easy" part of the beginners section of songs, and then move onto the "easy songs" at the bottom of that same page. Whatever songs you learn, don't just learn the fun parts, learn the whole song and work toward playing it in time with the performance track at the end of the lesson.

Hope this helps.

Jon