My only knowledge of Razz is first-hand experience, I have not read much advice or strategy on it, but I am best at it by just waiting and waiting and waiting for premium starting cards and quitting early if I doesn't stay good (no big cards). This seems similar to a good foundational game plan for Stud-8 (deviating as necessary if you see an exploitable situation, or it is otherwise favorable to do so) only you have to be even tighter because your not just waiting for very good low cards but straitening and suited low cards.

The "you can win high too or at least half the pot with a qualifying low" being the sucker draws (and by draws I mean an enticement or bait, not a poker-hand draw).

Where am I going wrong?

I apologize for being confusing. My attempts at pithy summaries can sometimes go too far.

I've played a ton of every common kind of poker, and to my mind, stud hi/lo is the most subtle and sophisticated limit game out there. Razz is the least subtle or sophisticated. There's just so many things you need to consider in stud hi/lo to make the best decisions - your chance of making low, your chance of making high, how exposed cards affect those chances, how the exposed cards affect your opponents' chances of making whatever they're trying to make, when to isolate and when to play multiway, and on and on and on. Razz is pretty much just mechanical - if your board is prettier than your opponent's, you bet. If you have the right odds, you call. Okay, yes, I'm exaggerating and there's more to it than that, but it's a much simpler game.

playing like a nit? most higher stakes games have big antes and you have to loosen up and play well. I would think my VPIP is higher in 8/b than in razz though. But they're probably not super different...