The Designer analogy is also rather unfortunate, because we have only one observable example of an intelligent designer -- humans -- and we have quite a few examples of living things that have been genetically modified by humans.
The strinking thing about living things designed by humans is that they are instantly identifiable as artifacts. They could not be the result of evolution.
Hi js1138! I’m preparing an article for posting here, hopefully later today, that I think may address your issues more exhaustively than I can do here. I’ll be sure to ping you! Thanks for your patience!