Mac mini Dock not consistently visible with large monitors

Can't see the Dock on a regular basis....

I have a Mac mini running Sonoma 14.5, with two Dell S3222 curved monitors (each 1920 x 1080).

Have been a Mac user since the beginning (yes, the very beginning, in the 1980s). I like the Dock. I'm used to the Dock, and know how to get to the settings for the Dock, adjust size, magnification, animation, etc etc. Please don't start there in answering.

I am beginning to suspect that my monitors (and yes, I know how to manage them, too) are incompatible with proper Dock operation. I can adjust their resolutions, and I can get the Dock to show up, but the picture quality is then horrible. When I change Dock settings from "bottom" to "right side" or the other way, I can see the shadow of the Dock at the very edge of the screen, but not the Dock itself. Occasionally, when I move the size and mag sliders into a particular, hold-your-tongue-right relationship, I can get the Dock icons to show up when the cursor is over them, BUT this situation never lasts through a "sleep" or a "restart" and then I can't recreate the slider conditions and get it to do it again.

Am I just stuck with this situation because of the monitor size/resolution?

Thanks for your help!

Frustrated in Arizona