You sound like someone who’s never used a HRM before. Chest straps are simply the HRM design that’s been around the longest, and is the most accurate and responsive.

All chest straps have exactly the same limitations if they don’t work for you or your use case I’m sorry to hear that. You bought the wrong product, and a different vendor would have made no difference at all.

Just wash it well and resell it on eBay, I’m sure you can recoup a good fraction of your loss.

By now also the LED based readings, which you get from either a wristwatch or an armband seem to have reached a decent level of performance, so that may serve you better.