Do you mean that you spent to much time with not much to show and now have an apparent gap in work history? Is it more of a present feeling of being lost in the weeds of those projects?
More of, the software I'm working with doesn't have a clear direction of how to build things 'properly' and not hack together solutions. Really all software has that problem if you're not experienced enough. For example, its like getting started building a SaaS by yourself so you can work at a company that develops them. The experience the individuals working for a company is going to far surpass your own, so you gotta throw yourself at the wall anyways trying to make it all work, and be an example you can point employers to and tell them all about how you use tests and deployments and handle data and such.