But I have had zero issues getting on Zalera even in early access.

Seems only the obviously way overpopulated servers are having these issues still. At this point y'all need to take some responsibility for rolling on those servers, that you knew were overpopulated, when you could have started on the non-congested ones. They even give Road to 70 and 80 buffs for these servers.

This is karma.

And you're level 81. You aren't getting an Endwalker refund unless you want your character/account locked until you get Endwalker again.