Thank you, Ry, you are the first person in multiple forums who has explained this in a way that is understandable and actionable! Honestly, the first person in some forums who even understood the question

I was able to set up Google Messenger to send out texts where only I see the replies... only drawbacks are the replies are all in separate windows (at least they just add on to other chats I've had with each person), it only allows for 20 people at a time, I can't save the people in a group, so I'll have to search for the threads (since there are more than 20 people I have to have multiple threads), and the perhaps the worst part - it sends the text out to each person individually!! I just sent out a message to two groups and now I have 37 individual conversations at the top of my messenger list. I am dumbfounded that someone hasn't come up with a more user-friendly and efficient group text app in all these years!