On the one hand, I feel your pain, on the other hand… You could have just reinstalled Garuda and chosen a password using characters that exist on a US keyboard to get it all set up before switching your keyboard layout to the one you want and then updating the password.
Sorry the journey has been so rough.
Garuda has been easy and stable for me. It’s gaming and performance focused though, so how well that works for you could depend on your laptop.