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Words, identity, isms, progressivism and leftism

I'm one of those sweet summer children that largely ally and agree with leftistsm, socialism, progressivism and even communism an marxism, but I don't really call myself any of those things. I suspect there are a lot of people who would roll their eyes at this assertion, like it's old and hackneyed and played out, but I am pretty resistant to labels and being put in a box.
Let me be clear though - if you were to look at what I believe, at least in terms of what I think would make the world a better place, then those beliefs would align very closely with all those isms I mentioned earlier. And really, if you want to call me a socialist, then fine. You use the words that most help you make sense of the world.
The reason I don't call myself one of those 'ists' is that to me an ism is a signifier of identity as informed by ideology. That may not be how everyone sees it, and that's fine, but that feels right to me. And as far as the aforementioned isms go, I see them mostly as tools. At most I will sometimes refer to myself as a progressive, but that is kind of vague enough, and gesturing indistinctly to some kind of fundamental moral or ethical value, that I kind of let it slide.
Leftism, socialism, communism, marxism and whatever other related terms you can think of are at best a means to an end. Marx himself didn't consider his works to be some kind of rigid blueprint for the perfect society, nor do I think he saw them as a dogmatic set of values. They are just a way of interpreting the world from a sociological or economic point of view to explain things like distribution of wealth and labour, and the motivations of people from different classes, and generally the nature of class struggle.
If I were to identify as any ism, it might be something like humatitarianism, or environmentalism, not to put too fine a point on it. Things like socialism are just tools to be used to understand the world and from that understanding produce effects that will work toward a more humanitarian or environmentalist world.
As an analogy, I happen to think the most useful tool for putting together a computer is a philips head screwdriver, but it would be absurd to identify as a 'philipsscrewdriverist'.
What I have just written about what communism was supposed to be is not new - most relatively well red leftists will say something similar. But it always baffles me that they then go on to describe the 'communist' society they are trying to build, or what policies or values are 'socialist' and which are not. I often feel like a lot of self-identified leftists of various flavours seem to confuse analysis with ideology, and strategy with prescriptivism. I'm equally as resistant to prescriptivism as I am to labels for much the same reasons.
When it comes down to it, I just don't care about leftist isms - I just want the world to not suck. Back when politics still felt mind-numbingly boring, I avoided it like the plague. I just want to get back to that state, and not have to worry about fascism and billionaires and exploitation of marginalised people and all the other shitty things that are caught up in that stuff. I want to just be able to get on with my life and do the things I want to do that make my life meaningful, and for everyone else to be able to do the same.