It has gutted my retirement - leaving me in debt.

Noting - the concept is flawed. If you are not a tech - you ae in debt before you start. You need a tech and you have to pay for one while you may not have enough clients or any to support the consulting fee or payroll It is highly tilted to operators who luck out and have the tech experience and an open market. If you are successful - they support you, if not there is little to no support. It is very Clickish!

almost everything - their focus is on their individual profitabllity - and feeding the "investor"

Change leadership and work for those who join - not the investor