Everything these courses offer, you can get for free fairly easily. There are no secrets that can only be discovered behind a paywall.

A good lesson to learn from your experiences here is that a lot of professional photography is creating what the client wants, not what you want. Open yourself up to learning and becoming competent at even the things you don’t like, and it will make you better at what you enjoy.

I’m in the camp of “it’s ok to take the photo (unless someone objects, in that case delete it), but it’s not ok to post it publicly on the internet”. If you’re building a portfolio for university, go ahead and do that, but it should be between you and the university and not on Instagram.