Now I want to get back to programming and do it RIGHT. Any advices how to start? Did someone went similar path before?
https://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Development-Taming-Software-Sch...
for the engineering and peopleware considerations, which is maybe 1/3 of "right".
Another 1/3 of "right" is the path from conceptual design to database modelling and realizing operations on the database from code. If this part is well planned the code almost writes itself and the customer can be always right because the answer to "can you do this small thing?" is always "yes!"
The other 1/3 of "right" is the content of the computer science curriculum. Some of this is practically math such as combinatorics and algorithm analysis. You would also have to take some classes in areas such as compilers, computer architecture, operating systems, etc. For the average person who wants transferrable skills I say go for compiler construction because small simple compilers are userful and methods used in compiler construction are useful for other kinds of programs. Also compilers interact with the processor and operating system so you can learn some of that by learning compilers.
Another path that gets closer to the metal is do some embedded development, for instance, program a microcontroller to talk to the computer in your car. Operating systems for tiny machines are all the rage these days and easy to learn because they are themselves tiny.