I play Accoustic for myself and friends, usually a few hours a week and I had similar concerns. Tried a lot of different strings until I recently found Elixir / Phosphorous Bronze / Nanowebs.
I started with custom lights (11's) and moved up to lights (12's). These are easy on the fingers, great resonance and sound great about 5 times as long as anything I've tried before. Another benefit that I don't understand is that they stay in tune for days, sometimes weeks!? Cost a little bit more than some, but make my Japanese Martin D-35 knockoff sound great. Keep playing and have fun.
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