Curious to a few things you said, the fit/finish... was this a true Creality kit?... I got a CR-10 knock-off and it was just about unusable (so I'm converting it to linear rails!) but my true Ender-3 was actually pretty well made...
So what was the issue with the steppers, have you looked into upgrading to 9 degree steppers?... (yea, I know... that's a whole 'nother issue)