Even without seeing your now-deleted photos, I know EXACTLY what fit issues you are talking about.
."....if I settle the waistband where I normally would, there's this fold of fabric that forms across the crotch. And if I pull them up so the crotch point is right, the front waistband is honestly above the bottom of my ribs. "
I find it on probably 75% of the pants I try. I finally realized that the issue is that the rise is too long, REGARDLESS of whether the pants are labelled low-rise, mid-rise, or high-rise. Those terms have no specific standardized meanings so you can't rely on just that unless you know the vendor. As others have said, a person's rise measurement is not always proportionally what you might expect, with everyone's body being so different. I'm 5'1", short wasted, and need a rise of 8 1/2 - 9", but I have "regular" length legs and prefer full length pants, so I want an inseam of at least 28". It's a tough combo to find. It's all about looking for the exact rise measurements, and not all vendors give that info online. Nordstrom is one of the best as far as giving detailed measurements for front and back rise.
All this is why I almost always duplicate pants now (especially jeans) when I find ones that are just right. I have a couple of small alterations I've done if the rise is just a tiny bit too high, as long as the pleat across the crotch is not noticeable, but otherwise no more wrong-rise-measurements pants are getting into my closet.
..and one last commend on Madewell, I love their overall vibe and look at their stuff pretty often. But...the tops are all too long for me, and forget their jeans. Last fall I went into a couple of different stores and asked this question..."do you have any jeans with a slim but not skinny leg, a rise of 8 1/2 - 9", and no distressing? Nope. I don't think that has changed
