The OG Vive is pretty bad to read things with, I can attest to that. My brother had one and I know what it looks like. Screendoor effect, text difficult to read, and for some games the platform you're standing on moves below your feet making dizziness worse.
I have the Vive Pro 1st-gen w/ Eye-Tracking, while I wouldn't recommend buying it retail for the price it is, I would say it's a huge upgrade over the OG Vive. The screendoor effect is nearly gone, text isn't perfect but easier to read, and I'm not that upset about the resolution or refresh rate, I don't get dizzy and the platform stays put below my feet in all of my games. Now, to be fair, the platform moving in some games may have been a difference between my brother's and my PC, either drivers or the headset itself, and not the games, since it was Linux vs Windows. I never tried the OG Vive on my PC.
I'd recommend the Valve Index if you were to buy right now without doing some looking around. If you want to wait, there are some newer headsets coming soon that look promising, the next 2 months should be interesting as that's when new hardware typically becomes available.
That sounds like you bought the wrong headset