I have similiar problems.
Come to the concl;usion that you can't get any kind of fine detail on a first layer.
I believe it's because the a,uminium buildplats scatters and reflects the uv light and just cures a bunch of resin around the actual exposed area.

Not sure if there is a way round it, and it's the main reason I reckon that most people with desktop resin printers stick to models.

Not being to get a detailed first layer pretty much renders mine totally useless for me. :-(

Sticking a non-uv reflective build surface over te aluminium plate might work - haven't tried it yet.

As far as the jelly stuff goes.
Not a clue, never had that.
you're layer heights sound a bit large.

0.025 is what I use. Don't see any point going thicker.
The thinner layers cure better and in less time so the overall print time doesn't change much.
You actually don;t gain anything at all from using thicker layers on a resin printer. But it can cause under exposure issues.