Debugging Sketch Adafruit DotStar LEDs

I am attempting the Thunder / Lightning project with a DotStar LED strip. I am still a student with coding C++ (apparently a month long course was not good enough). There are plenty of tutorials with variations, however the majority are for neopixels. I have been stuck trying to translate code to DotStar. The library does not indicate certain codes / commands, and there is no definitive documentation or one reliable source for assistance from the manufacturer (Adafruit forums are overwhelming). Sorry but github.io is not very helpful, I'm a human, not bot.

After more than two months of:

• a purchase of expensive LED lights;
• purchase of support equipment & hardware;
• a physical burn;
• a month long curriculum of distant learning C++, including tuition;
• endless internet searches, including thousands of forums posts, 3 different languages;
• scanning Youtube is neither efficient or reliable;
• signing up with GitHub to no avail, again another lost day toward a learning curve;
• reading endless posts to that site that is senseless;
• lost time and acquired aggravation.

I just want to work as an artist with simple, functioning tools - not a programmer. I do not have the time to develop another career. This endeavor is incredibly consuming, (now) expensive and easily frustrating - no longer fun.

I am stuck with the last bit of code (I think). I do not know if I should bother posting my work in this forum, another or post a link to GitHub (for all that site is worth). I am confused, frustrated, annoyed and bordering irate. I ‘m working with an Arduino Nano & DotStar LED strip. Using both Arduino IDE and Platform IO. I have no problem with a physical connection and tests. I have figured out colors in hex and 8 bit as well as other animation sketches, but I have no idea what I'm doing here.
I have been getting the same errors for:

• expression must be a modifiable lvalue - C / C++(137)
• too many arguments in function call - C / C++(140)
• no matching function
• *with the hook up to MOS SPI pins, do I still declare the pins? if I do, is redundancy bad in this case?
• *GRB vs RGB - is it set correctly?
• *pointers, references, address of operators - ugh 
• *and a few calls that do not exist in the library (?)
• do I add to the header file?

I may be prepared to give up & buy a cheap Chinese sound activator unit. Before I quit and demand money back from vendors, it is my hope to find genuine aid in this forum. Any help in pointing to a source of assistive information for beginners, resolution or just the bold truth: I'm wasting my time.

Thanks - LAW