I found watching and reading a couple of good videos to establish some 'framework' about the game really helped me out here. Before I learned about the game, I had a similar win rate to you.

After learning about the game, however, the non ascension runs almost felt too easy. This is because I had misconceptions on how the game should be played: I found that the cards I thought were valuable were actually bad. With this new knowledge I could easily pick out the 'right play' and come out ahead in situations where I would have normally perished.

I've lost interest around ascension 10. But this experience really made me realise how much we stand on shoulders of giants for thinking about literally everything, from programming to an indie card game. In the essay, the author says he'd rather say he has "extended" win streak records rather than "broke" the win streak records and I think this captures my feeling exactly.