OP, you sound a lot like me. I want perfection for my animals and I go crazy trying to figure out how to do it.
For me the solution was first to make sure that the room was staying (mostly) in the mid to high 70's, with a slight natural drop at night, then getting the best thermostat money can buy (herpstat, in my opinion) which means instead of keeping the area the probe contacts swinging from 87 to 93, it keeps it within 0.1 of the set temperature.
The next thing I've done is ordered pro products heat panels which I'm excited to install soon.
But, that's a lot of money, and I also understand you wanting to make the setup you have work. But it is just like anything else: the $50 solution is not going to be as good as the $300 solution, so you can't expect it to operate as efficiently, with the same level of stability, or as safely.
In the interim, I would focus on keeping the room in the high 70's and keep the hot spot within a safe range for now. Keep in mind, these animals deal with temperature fluctuations in the wild, and even with temperatures perfect some snakes will still fast (because they are generally overfed in captivity).
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