could you post a picture

If you have ridges you have to sand them down to get rid of them.

Are you sure that the guy didn't use a spray texture on the walls prior to painting. It hides many imperfections. Is it an actual orange peel texture? If so you can buy a can and spray it on the flat areas to get that dimpled effect. Test spray on something else to see how far away and how heavy to spray. I used an artist brush to knock down overly large goobers that the orange peel spray sometimes left behind.

Poor technique can cause dimpling - letting the roller get too dry and being forced to use excessive pressure can cause dimpling. This can also leave ridges.

If you share a picture of the textured and non textured surfaces we will be better equipped to help.

Here are some pics, hopefully they show how some areas are smooth where they've been patched.

This also sucks because only the bottom half of the walls were resheetrocked so those are not as textured as the top half. I believe the original painters use a 3/4 nap on the wall so I'm using the same, also in hopes of trying to hide as much of the crappy mudding joints as I can.

what grit sandpaper would you recommend to get the roller edges out? Also the problem with sanding them out will just create another "smooth" area.