Why is sidecar so hard to use. or rather why doesnt it work?

I can not get my iPad to connect to my iPad via Sidecar. I will be traveling and dont want to have to carry a 3rd screen with me. Ive tried all the things to connect the iPad to Mac via side car. Signed into same account, Same wifi, turned off handoff, Signed out and signed in on both devices, turned on and off etc... The screen is just blank. this is so frustrating. Why dont apple products work together. What's the point of the ecosystem if the devices cant work together. I suspect Apple is just hiring interns to do all the UX now. How else can this feature be so poorly designed. I wish Apple would start hiring senior designers again so things like Sidecar would just work with a flip of the switch instead of me spending an entire day trying to get it to work and still failing.