First off I’m playing the free version. I’m lvl 30. It seems I lose every 7 out of 10 games. I tried the FNM thing last night and was up 30 health to 10 and before I knew what happened I was destroyed in a turn or two. Same in Standard 2021. I literally said WTF just happened??? Are a lot of these players paying for better cards and decks or are they just smarter than me with building decks? Or a bit of both?

It’s embarrassing as hell to lose that way when I have so much health and then BAM! I’m dead.

Better cards win games, of course, and money gets you better cards. Life remaining isn't a good indication of whether you're ahead in Magic as well, since against some decks starting with 40 life is barely relevant (control, ramp).

If it troubles you, you could:

1) Play unranked, which has an algorithm to match players against other players with roughly the same "deck strength" (I don't know how this works and I doubt there's an official explanation, since it'll be gamed).
2) Play limited.

Right on thank you!