What he said...
Referring to it making absolutely no difference. You can easily make your own paddle with store bought plywood of the right thickness, and cover it with free rubber (the kind you get from one of those money wasters who obsessively change their rubber way too often. Every player has at few they don't throw out for how much they spent on them).
You could also get second hand paddles dirt cheap with rubber already on them, considering all players go through what you are right now, with the try this, I suck, try that, I still suck, try, try, try, until eventually they stop sucking, and it turns out that all along, it had nothing to do with the rubber, paddle, or even technique.
It is all about execution baby! Only way to execute is with the type of muscle/nervous system memory that can only be learned through about a thousand hours of repetition, and that doesn't include all that ball retreival time, so to make it happen in a reasonable smount of time that isn't measured in many years, you have to do ten hours of multiball training each week with a coach, partner/ball feeder, or robot. That or be more patient and beat up on novice players every once in awhile to revel in the amount of progress you've already made since you were a beginner.
Once you stop sucking compared to the average club player, you'll find your performance is just as good with each and every rubber you once blamed. Only players that may actually benefit or suffer in any measurable match point way are professionals who all slap the snot out of the ball with little margine for error, and maybe the top club players.
I'm probably just barely past the equipment blaming stage of development as you, but would agree that despite no rubber making any real difference, a slower rubber wouldn't hurt. I recommend DHS H3N unboosted, the cheap orange sponge version. I would never recommend a slow paddle though, because as soon as your skill improves, you'll toss it aside for a fast one, unless you adopt a defensive style with pip out rubber.
That was my third or fourth rubber, and it is every bit as good as this expensive version. I boosted that one, but not my current one.
When it goes long it is because you didn't correct the angle enough for the incoming top spin, or regardless of spin. H3N unboosted is one of the slowest rubbers, but until you have fine and precise angle control, nothing will change.
Ideally half your misses should tank into the net. If 90+ % are going long, aim lower.
