Hi! I've just started doing linocut and I'm trying to understand why my prints are so inconsistent + how to fix it?

It's really hard to get an even spread of ink, even if I'm doing the transfer and print the exact same way... I feel like the ink itself isn't sticking to the lino, thus leading to a poor print job, but I am not sure. The lino itself looks saturated after I apply ink, but once applied on paper, it looks so patchy

These are three different prints of a new design and they all look wildly different (more noise, lighter ink, etc)

I did see the ink troubleshooting tutorial but I'm using a Ranger archival inkpad and not tubed ink :( also my lino is super cheap. Could this be the cause? I hope to make a printed tarot series so I'd really like to correct this asap ://

Thank you so much????????