If all the exchanges are shady and can’t be trusted, how do I crypto?

Relatively new to crypto here. Lately I’ve seen a lot of FUD around basically all the exchanges, don’t even bother to go into the Coinbase subreddit every post is “I was hacked” “I was scammed” and so on

My question is: if I shouldn’t trust exchanges, and only use a wallet (keys and crypto and not yours and all) how do I purchase/convert/sell/etc?

Being new to this I only use the exchange because 1. I don’t have a huge bag I’m playing with 2. Gas fees for the wallets are crazy atm

So how do I do anything outside of hodl with just a wallet and no exchange? Thanks.