I use Joplin, and am with you on the half a zillion notes thing.

What is helping me is the "bidirectional links" plugin (so I'm linked to the the first version of the notes and don't forget it exists and keep starting again), and the "home note" plugin (so there is a hub for all those spokes).

It's a lot of work "curating" stuff, but I haven't found a better way for the way my mind works.