im a casual player too and ihave raised similar issues , i find it hard to get teams full stop and when i have tried to set up them it seems people want uber xp progression or they leave.Just managed to get my 1st 50 and i had less than 10 teams altogether, the rest of the time it was a solo slog which i found exgatterated by the lack of funds compared to everyone else who seem to be slotted with io sets from the outset.
On those few teams i would feel the same,almost superfluous as pretty much everyone was steaming along and i was sidekicked the mobs were all plus 5 so i was barely hitting the mob let alone doing anything useful, this was ill/rad troller and even my debuffs seemed pointless.
Dropped out tbh and been on zwift instead lately