I like the second recording better as well.
I can show you how I did that when I get back to the grown-up computer.
There is a trick to it.
I, too, found the default DeEsser settings didn’t do squat, so on a whim, I Audiobook Mastered the test clip to guarantee technical standards and volume no matter how I started. Then I adjusted DeEsser Threshold more and more sensitive until it started to “grab” the essing. Then, from the clip’s spectrum analysis, I broadened the processed tones or frequencies more to match the ones I knew were causing problems.
Poof. A much tamer, pleasant presentation, and it should be repeatable.
As we go.
Koz