What do you do when you begin a lucid dream feeling that it will be low quality?

For context, most of my lucid dreams are D(E)ILDs, and it seems to me that the highest quality ones come around 4-6 hours of sleep. These will be more established nonlucid dreams that get converted to lucid about halfway through. They often retain the story and environment as well as the "structural integrity" of the dream, while I assume some control and awareness. In these dreams, I find myself interacting with the world and characters vividly, usually doing some experimentation but only to further my goals in the dream. They are very satisfying experiences and I'd like to have more like this.

However, the vast majority of my lucid dreams occur closer to waking, usually in a chain (through DEILD or otherwise), and are short and usually focused heavily on experimentation and analysis. In these, I usually completely forgo story in order to attempt some ability, manipulate an object or character, etc. I'm not consciously driving towards these goals, it just seems that as I gain more awareness and wade in the shallow waters of light sleep, my subconscious goals change accordingly. I also tend to loop over a dream area for several cycles in the chain before changing scenes.

In these dreams of lesser quality, it can feel as if the dream is actively working against me. Dream control techniques don't work as expected. Dream characters ignore or sabotage me if I try to approach or interact with them. For instance, in my final dreams this morning, I found myself in a supermarket trying to approach dream figures. Before I became lucid, they were abundant, browsing the aisles in clusters, but after I became lucid, I had to search extensively to find even a few. When I did, they ignored my commands and interactions, and wouldn't make eye contact with me. The eeriest part was that as soon as the dream began to destabilize and end, they all looked straight at me.

Is this a common phenomenon? Please tell me about similar experiences, and what you do to try and tame these disobedient dreams.