>>2869207>>2869209alright thanks anons I figured the problem
it seems like the issue was basically just that the pony model I downloaded was literally the [base one] and apparently you're not actually supposed to use that
I went and downloaded another 6GB pony model which claims to have a bunch of anime vae baked in, and this one instantly gives me better results, no matter which resolutions I use
I'll keep downloading more models and checking the results I get, I guess that's really all it boils down to