Jack,
I get the desire just to use Microsoft's own tools to fix the issue or make changes to your partitions, but, unfortunately, lots of third-party tools exist BECAUSE Microsoft's default tools and methods (like the cumbersome ones that helped destroy your data) are woefully inadequate for certain classes of issues, (partition ones being a historical Achille's heel for Microsoft).
I would recommend instead you do some research and gain trust in the best third-party tools from reviews, etc., I personally vouch for MiniTool Partition Wizard. Btw, I put a few hours into documenting how I went about successfully fixing this on my computer... https://www.northshore-it.com/tips/how-tos/manually-resize-your-recovery-partition/