So, for the longest time, due to my unsteady, art-baby hands, I had the smoothing setting on SAI jacked up way higher than it needs to be.

As it turns out, it's rather important to not have smoothing too high. It can really throw you off!

So, I guess, bottom line, it's important to break the habit early. Smoothing is a very useful tool but I think you're better off saving the higher settings for when you're doing lineart. Especially while sketching, keep it low. It'll help a ton!