One thing I learned the most in the past 5 years is having a great patience. Crypto is a long term game and I understand it by failing so many times because of how short my patience back then. I've lost couple of opportunity because of my unwillingness to have and short temper. But yeah I've learned on how to do trading properly and absolutely increase my patience that I've bring in real life. With the improvement of my control over my assets, It is the same time I earn somehow good enough in my trades. The portfolio I have today is significantly greater than my portfolio I have 5 years ago. To be honest, The past 5 years is too fast! I didn't realize that 2017 is 5 years ago LOL!
Patience is the key, which means long-term trades. I can relate to your experience, I also tried day/short trading, but I didn't have a lot of success (or it's better to say I was losing a lot of coins), so after switching to long-term trades and making a few very nice hits, I discovered what works a lot better for me.
As you say, crypto is a long-term game, in the end, it's here to stay and make crazy swings from time to time, we just need to be patient and try to catch them.