There is joy and life to be found in pretty much anything. If you're unhappy with your existence, there are other, more convenient ways of going about it than trying dangerous chemicals in dangerous environs.
Cannabis Sativa/Indica blends have been known to artificially satiate your needs hierarchy, as explained by maslow, pretty well (except sometimes for hunger), allowing one a temporary shortcut to self-actualization.
I've gained massive insights into myself through the use of psilocybin, and I'm not alone. it isn't uncommon to hear someone compare one night with a breakthrough dose of psilocybin to a few years of therapy. These insights, and the resulting lifting of depression, lasted upwards of 3 months the first time it happened to me.
is it better to get to a happy/enlightened state without them? absolutely. but make no mistake, there are shortcuts. like every shortcut, however, make sure you watch your step while you're going through them in order to avoid pitfalls.
IOW, there are some people having the ayahuasca/DMT experience who are able to communicate it back to the rest of us well enough that we can make modest changes in our behavior and end up much happier.
IME, it's been learning to treat myself better, love myself and be nicer to other people. Eventually, if you look enough for it, you start to realize that you can't actually treat yourself different from others... (you can't actually break the golden rule!) So if you get into the habit of complimenting people, soothing them when they're upset, you'll find your own mental state vastly improving, because you're judging yourself the same as you judge others. It's strange and I don't understand it, but it's been working for me. And it sounds like "empathy," but empathy is a side effect of this process that I could still choose to practice separately or not.
My experience resonates with the OP. A lot of the world doesn't really matter much unless it's been infused with love. This sounds corny b/c advertisers have the jump on such phrases, but it's pretty much true. Unless someone is physically defective, you can psychoanalyze them to death, describe their problems a million ways, but if they simply start being nicer to other people (and there are some specific ways to do this, not just making cakes for everyone), they begin to heal. It also has to do with reframing pain and some other ideas. If anyone's interested, I can share some yt links...