Unable to edit misspelled words on iPhone keyboard

Am I missing something? When I try and click on a misspelled word to correct it I am not able. The cursor jumps to a different spot and if I try too many times it comes up with the selection bubble and that is hard to get out of. I don't use autocorrect but apple seems to have made it impossible to correct words short of deleting the entire word and retyping. This seems like basic keyboarding to me so I have to be missing something? I cant see intentionally making something that is so easy into something impossible.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: editing typing and text